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MESMER AND SWEDENBORG; 



OR, 



THE RELATION 



OF THE 



DEVELOPMENTS OF MESMERISM 



TO THE 



DOCTRINES AND DISCLOSURES 



OF 



SWEDENBORG 






" It certainly is agreeable to reason, that there are some light effluxions from spirit to 
spirit, when men are in presence one with another, as well as from body to body." 

— Bacon. 



BY GEORGE BUSH 



NEW YORK : 



PUBLISHED BY JOHN ALLEN, 139 NASSAU STREET. 




e*^ 




\\v 



^&» 

C,^* 



/ - 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 

S GEORGE BUSH, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District 

of New York. 






Snowden & Prall, Printers, 

Corner of Ann & Nassau streets, N.Y. 



* 









V 



PREFACE. 



The object aimed at in the present work is to elevate the phe- 
nomena of Mesmerism to a higher plane than that on which they 
have been wont to be contemplated. The fundamental ground as- 
sumed is, that the most important facts disclosed in the Mesmeric 
state are of a spiritual nature, and can only receive an adequate 
solution by being viewed in connection with the state of disem- 
bodied spirits and the laws of their intercourse with each other. 
Perhaps the first impression would be, that the world of spirits is 
so far beyond our ken — that everything pertaining to it is so shad- 
owy, dim, and delusive — that it were idle to think that any certain 
light can be reflected from it upon the psychological constitution 
of our nature in the present life. It remains to be seen whether 
this judgment be not premature. It is at any rate claimed in be- 
half of Emanuel Swedenborg that he was in spirit intromitted into 
that world, and has made a faithful revelation of the state of its 
inhabitants and of the general laws and conditions of spiritual 
being. It is essentially involved in these disclosures that man, in 
this world, is a spirit clothed with a body — that in his interior prin- 
ciples he is so constituted as to be even now a denizen of the 
spiritual world and constantly associated with kindred spirits — that 
the laws of his intellectual life, which are operative here, are ope- 
rative there also — and that consequently his future state is merely 
the normal and necessary result of the working of those elements, 
psychical and moral, which distinguish him in his bodily life. 
It is claimed, moreover, that many of the leading interior princi- 
ples of his nature are developed, under a new aspect, in the Mes- 
meric condition, and that we are at full liberty to bring these de- 
velopments into juxtaposition with those of Swedenborg to see how 
far they coincide. If they are found to be in the most marked and 
striking harmony with each other, it is surely difficult to resist the 
conclusion, that Swedenborg is entitled to our credence as a truth- 
ful reporter of the facts and phenomena of the spirit-world. If not 



IV PREFACE. 

an apostle to others, he certainly is to those who are satisfied of 
the reality of the facts elicited in the Mesmeric state. 

My object then is to show to what extent these coincidences ex- 
ist. I propose to display the dominant phenomena of Mesmerism 
by the side of the spiritual disclosures of Swedenborg. The rea- 
der will thus have before him the adequate means of forming a 
judgment on the grand question. It is not to be disguised that very 
momentous issues hang upon the result of the investigation. If, upon 
a rigid interrogation of the laws of our mental being, it turns out that 
whathavebeen incredulously termed the reveries and dreams of the 
Swedish Seer are in fact no other than the eternal verities of things, a 
new complexion is at once put upon the sublime system of disclosure 
which he has been made the instrument of imparting to the world. 
His solemnly asserted claims are no longer an idle pretence. Though 
not professedly confirmed by miracles, as miracles are usually un- 
derstood, yet they must be considered as hereby receiving the direct 
seal and stamp of the authority of Heaven, and it can be no light 
matter to pass them by unheeded. As he came avowedly not to 
usher in a new religion to the world, but to develope the interior 
and spiritual genius of one already given, his mission could only be 
authenticated by an appeal to the universal reason of man acting 
upon the alleged accordance between its soundest inductions and 
the intrinsic character of his expose. It is by this test that his ad- 
herents are supremely desirous that the truth of his mission should 
be tried. They refuse to admit that they have yielded their cre- 
dence to it on any other ground, and they are unable to see why 
the evidence which has satisfied them should not satisfy others, 
provided they will entertain it with equal fairness and candor ; and 
considering the magnitude of the interests at stake, in case it should 
prove to be true, they are at a loss to conceive that it should not 
be entitled to the most diligent examination. If the system bore 
upon its face the self-evident marks of imposture and delusion — if 
it contravened any settled first-truths of the reason — if it arrayed 
itself in obvious antagonism with the purport of the Christian Scrip- 
tures — if, in a word, it had only to be looked at to be at once war- 
rantably rejected — then indeed every plea in its behalf would be 
a useless labor, if treason against Truth be not the more appropri- 
ate appellation. But we confidently affirm that no man can in- 
telligently pronounce such a verdict upon the alleged revelations 
of Swedenborg. Apart from all the collateral confirmations which 
we propose to exhibit in the ensuing pages, they commend them- 



PREFACE. V 

selves, by their internal evidence, to the calmest and profoundest 
reflection of every enlightened mind. The criterion to which they 
refer themselves is the intrinsic nature of man and the report of his 
clearest intuitions. If they do not abide this ordeal, let them be re- 
jected, and consigned for ever to the contempt which has tempo- 
rarily been their lot. But we have no fears for the grand issue. 
The evolutions of Providence may justly be expected to enhance 
the testimony of truths which its counsels have purposed to bestow 
upon the world. From a source but little anticipated, this witness 
is now forcing itself upon the human mind with an energy which 
cannot be resisted. A new phasis of our nature has been recently 
developed, and its plain bearing is to fortify the conclusions of the 
reason by a demonstration made to the very senses. 

It will be seen that in the ensuing discussion I have little to say 
of the purely physical effects of Mesmerism, and that I propose no 
theory of the nervous influence, or any other, by which to account 
for the phenomena. I trust this may not be set down to the ac- 
count of a defective mode of treating the subject. My aim is alto- 
gether different. It involves no attempt to solve the physiological 
problems connected with the processes and results in question. I 
do not underrate such inquiries, nor do I doubt that a continual 
progress is making towards the discovery of the physical laws upon 
which the physical manifestations of Mesmerism depend. That 
many, or most, or all of them, maybe resolved into the constitution 
of the nervous system, is in the highest degree probable. But at 
present we know very little of the interior economy of this part of 
our organism, and to say that a particular phenomenon is to be 
traced to the action of the nervous influence is merely stating a. 
fact without explaining it. We are not thereby advanced in our 
knowledges of causes. The department I have chosen to consider 
is that of psychology, and not of physiology. I wish to show that 
certain psychological facts are strikingly illustrated by the state- 
ments of Swedenborg in regard to the phenomena of the spiritual 
world. These facts undoubtedly rest in a measure in a physiolog- 
ical basis, but this we have not yet compassed, nor is it our impres- 
sion that it will be compassed, except by the light reflected back 
upon it from, the spiritual sphere into which we are conducted by 
Swedenborg's illuminated guidance. He alone, we conceive, has 
set before us the true point of contact between the spiritual and 
the physical, and shown how the one flows into, governs, and 
moulds the other. Nothing, in my view, is more idle than the 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

attempt to refer the Mesmeric effects, in the light in which I con- 
sider them, to physical or natural causes. They inevitably con- 
duct us to a higher sphere. It is only the condition of spirit out of 
the body that can unfold to us the laws and operation 6f spirit in 
the body, and the fixed relation that subsists between them. Cor- 
rect knowledge upon this point is the universal desideratum of the 
human mind. Nothing does it more earnestly covet than an in- 
sight into the mystery of the connexion between matter and 
mind. The solving of this mystery is one of the grand ends of 
Swedenborg's mission. For this he was providentially prepared 
by those profound researches in the whole field of science and 
philosophy, which had conducted him to such splendid results 
prior to his illumination. His spiritual illumination, however, was 
the crown of his prerogatives, and subsequent to that epoch the 
speculations of the Sage gave place to the oracles of the Seer. 
This we are willing should stand for the present as a simple asser- 
tion; the sequel will discover, in some good degree, upon what 
grounds it is made. But the body of his works must be consulted 
for the full establishment of his claim. 

It can hardly fail to be gathered, from the entire air of the present 
work, that its ulterior object is to present, under a new form, a 
plea for the truth of Swedenborg's revelations. The author has 
no motive to disguise this as the real animus of the undertaking. 
In this he regards himself as entering into direct co-operation 
with the designs of Providence. He has no scruple to avow it as 
his firm conviction that the phenomena of Mesmerism have been 
developed in this age with the express design of confirming the 
message of Swedenborg — of testifying, by external evidence, to 
the absolute truth of the disclosures and the doctrines which he 
has promulgated to the world. If they are of God they are worthy 
of special authentication at his hand. This, we think, is afforded 
in the extraordinary results which have grown out of the first dis- 
covery of Mesmer. 

Let me, however, on one point be distinctly understood. I do 
not place the main evidence of Swedenborg's truth on the basis of 
the discoveries made through Mesmerism. They are held to rest 
upon the immovable ground of their internal character — of their 
accordance at once with the voice of Reason and the voice of Rev- 
elation. The Church of the New Jerusalem, to which his an- 
nouncements have, under God, given birth, is not to be considered 
as compromised, in any point of its faith, by what is in these pages 



PREFACE. VU 

given to the world. It is but justice to the members of that body to 
say, that they have never consented to assume any peculiar responsi- 
bility on the score of the alleged phenomena, as though the system of 
doctrines they have embraced were in any way pledged for the verit- 
able character of the Magnetic developments. So far as any palpable 
and undeniable truth is brought out in connection with them — truth 
which spontaneously allies itself with the laws of spiritual being un- 
folded by Swedenborg — they, of course, willingly accept it. While 
they uniformly, I believe, stand aloof from all public and promiscuous 
exhibitions of the marvels of the Mesmeric trance, and while upon 
their own principles they can readily account for all the delusions that 
may be mixed up in the clairvoyant reports, yet they do not hesitate 
to acknowledge anything in them that is absolutely true ; and if, at 
the same time, it affords a proof of the grander truths of Sweden- 
borg's teachings, they gratefully recognize it as a providential attes- 
tation which may be of service to those who are not convinced, as they 
are, upon other and higher grounds.* 



* I insert in the present connection the following paragraph from a 
pamphlet recently published in London, from the pen of a New 
Churchman, to the leading sentiments of which I fully subscribe : — 
" It is therefore impossible for the members of the New Church to re- 
main silent and indifferent upon this interesting question. Can they 
resist the inquiry thus forced upon them — What is the affinity or 
connection which exists between the principles of Swedenborg and 
the science denominated Animal Magnetism ? Can any serious reader 
of our author's theological works be persuaded that its principles 
are irrelevant, or not interwoven, or do not form a prominent part of 
all his doctrines ? And if it is so, how vain the attempt to smother 
and silence all inquiry and examination — to put a veto upon our lips 
and to stay all future correspondence upon a point in which the char- 
acter of our author's doctrines is so deeply implicated ! The read- 
ers of Swedenborg are not to be terrified by any gratuitous supposi- 
tion about one finite mind interfering with the will and consciousness 
of another, so as to bring it into a state or condition * in which it is 
not accountable, either in bodily words or works.' Such a case is 
entirely suppositious, and not possible. It cannot happen ; nay, 
a cherubic guard is ever ready to prevent it. * In the natural 
world, that which acts and that which reacts, is called a force 
and an effort; but in the spiritual world, that which acts and that 
which reacts, is called life and will. Life is then a living force, 
and will is a living effort ; and the equilibrium is called liberty or 
freedom.' Now, under any possibility, can this equilibrium be ever 
frustrated or remain quiescent, even while its bodily or external sen- 
sations have that appearance ? There is a cherubic guard, as said be- 
fore, ever ready to prevent it, conducted by laws of order, and sus- 



Vlll PREFACE. 

While I thus desire to be viewed as occupying a position which 
shall in no way commit the interests of the New Church with the 
issues of what may be deemed an uncertain science, I would also 



tained by the Divine Omnipotence. « For the divine sphere pro- 
ceeding from the Lord is omnipresent, and constantly sees where 
anything is in danger; whereas an angel only sees what is near him, 
and cannot so much as perceive, within himself, what is passing in 
his own society.' And then may we not ask, in relation to the de- 
velopment of this vital action, Can any gift or power be given to man 
for good and use, within the sphere of his operation, which it is not 
his duty to accept and wisely adopt r It is unnecessary to add any 
more remarks at present upon this supposition and gratuitous as- 
sertion, which requires proofs of its solidity, from the writings of our 
author. It is presumed, however, that in the theological writings of 
Swedenborg, we have confirmatory proofs of the existence, and of 
some of the distinguishing properties, of this principle of vital influ- 
ence. Its discovery is coincident in manifestation and concurrent in 
its effects. We therefore make our appeal to Swedenborg in proof or 
testimony to the existence and to the order of this principle, for it is 
the living principle in man, and of which, as an organized form, he 
is the proper recipient, and in different or distinct degrees; because 
all the distinguishing qualities of his character, as a human being, 
are the results of its manifestation, in the varieties of its development, 
in the growth of his mind, in the arrangements, classification, and 
regeneration of all his active powers : in every moment of his exist- 
ence, dependent and constantly receptive of its influence, and this 
bath mediately and immediately. It is the accommodated medium or 
agent by which all activity and power originates, even all the forces 
in the universe, and from which they subsist and continually exist. 
To be thoroughly grounded in this conviction, the reader of Sweden- 
borg must not only study the little treatise on Influx, as an introduc- 
tion, to gain some general ideas upon the subject, but he must take 
a more extensive range in the deep study of the numbers of the Ar- 
cana Celestia, wherever the index refers to the terms Influx and Life. 
And the reader of Swedenborg who has time and leisure to digest 
these points in our author, and then to compare them impartially with 
the recent discoveries of the properties of this vital fluid in man, and 
even with the wonders and phenomena of somnambulism, will see 
nothing frightful, or repugnant, or contrary to our principles and doc- 
trines, but all consistent, confirmatory, and in harmony with Sweden- 
borg. For it is from him that we are instructed concerning the con- 
tinual influx, passing from the spiritual into the natural world ; the 
inflowing of life into organized forms adapted to its reception, and 
founded in the nature of things, and in harmony vsith all the laws 
of order in the great system of the divine economy, and no less in har- 
mony with the common influx, which descends by lower degrees^ 
equally separate and distinct, into the life of animals, and the sub- 
jects of the vegetable kingdom." — Mesmeric Phenomena, p. 25-27. 



PREFACE. UC 

deprecate the inference that I approve of the indiscriminate practice 
of Mesmerism from motives of mere idle curiosity or public enter- 
tainment, especially by novitiate hands. Indeed, I know of nothing 
more calculated to bring the whole theme into contempt with the 
sober-minded than such Lectures as are frequently advertised by itin- 
erant Magnetizers, who are willing to demean themselves to making 
gain from the public exhibition of a power which can never be right- 
ly regarded but as a most sacred endowment, that is positively pro- 
faned by being turned to any account independent of use and un- 
prompted by benevolent motive. Moreover, when physically applied, 
it is frequently a perilous agent in its effects upon the nervous sys- 
tem, and though its curative powers in disease are oftentimes emi- 
nently great, yet it is a law of its operation that its success shall de- 
pend upon the character of the motive by which it is applied, and the 
general discretion which governs its ministry. Regarded from a still 
higher point of view — as the development of an interior state which 
puts the subject into a new relation with the spiritual world — it is 
fraught with a sanctity with which no right mind will trifle. The 
highest moral and religious conditions are here requisite in both par- 
ties, as the only guaranty not only against the most pernicious physi- 
cal effects, but also against the liability to the most egregious delu- 
sions, and a dangerous abuse of the moral sentiments. 

I venture to express the hope that the copiousness of the quotations, 
made necessary by the plan of the work, will not mar the reader's in- 
terest in the perusal. Apart from their direct bearing on the general 
scope, they will be seen to possess an intrinsic value from the character 
of the psychological and moral principles which they embody. The 
extracts from the various works on Mesmerism present an interesting 
view of the main phenomena, while those from Swedenborg will be 
seen to be entitled to the profoundest consideration, in whatever light 
they are viewed, whether as confirming the truth of the former or not. 

Nor would I have it overlooked, that, for the most part, I make no 
account whatever of the claims of clairvoyants to direct intercourse 
with spirits. Without denying the possibility of the fact, or its oc- 
casional actual occurrence, still I do not aim to establish the truth of 
Swedenborg's revelations by the similar revelations of Magnetic sub- 
jects. Their alleged visions may, for aught that concerns the scope 
of my discussions, be justly regarded as artificial dreams, produced 
by the excitement of the cerebral organs. On this head I have no- 
thing to affirm — nothing to deny. I take simply the manifestations, 
as developed in the ordinary state, and as evincing a peculiar mental 



X PREFACE. 

relation between the parties, and endeavor to show that these facts 
receive their true and only explanation from what Swedenborg has 
disclosed of the laws of spiritual intercourse in the other life. The 
ground of this is his own grand position — that M man is a spirit as to 
his interiors," and in virtue of that fact, is unconsciously associated 
with spirits, and governed, as to his mental workings, by the same 
laws with them. The denial and refutation of this principle will be 
seen to be absolutely requisite to the rejection of the results which I 
have affirmed to flow from it. 

In relation to the extraordinary case of A. J. Davis, given in the 
Appendix, I have indeed been compelled to view its phenomena in a 
higher light than that pertaining to any other sample of the clair- 
voyant power. It will be seen at once to be a case altogether unique 
and unprecedented. Still even this is not a case of direct revela- 
tion of the facts of the spiritual world, like those of Swedenborg. It 
is one where a supernatural knowledge is displayed on subjects of 
which he was previously ignorant, and which can only be explained 
on the ground of the influx of the minds of spirits into his mind. 
This circumstance renders his state a remarkable illustration, or de- 
monstration rather, of the truth of Swedenborg's disclosures, and how 
vastly is the evidence of this heightened, when we find him uncon- 
sciously reproducing Swedenborg's own philosophy, and making long 
verbal quotations from his works — works of which he had never read 
a solitary page ! The narrative I have given relative to this young man 
will doubtless encounter the most stubborn unbelief, but the facts by 
which it is fortified are beyond dispute, and I offer it to the world 
without the slightest misgiving on the score of its possible future expo- 
sure as an idle tale of imposition or delusion. That it will carry 
conviction to the mass of my readers, I do not venture to say; but that 
it defies contradiction in the form in which I have given it, I unhesi- 
tatingly affirm. Upon the evidence of the facts in the affair will de- 
pend the soundness of the conclusion I draw from them. If, with 
the impregnable array of the facts before them, my readers can draw 
any other conclusion, I am assuredly somewhat curious to learn what 
it is. G. B. 

New- York, Nov. 19, 1846. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Introduction 13 

CHAP. I. Swedenborg's own state Psychologically 

viewed 23 

CHAP. II. The more obvious Mental Phenomena of 

Mesmerism — Transfer of Thought 34 

CHAP. III. Phantasy 57 

CHAP. IV. Spheres 70 

CHAP. V. Memory 86 

CHAP. VI. Magnetic Vision 104 

CHAP. VII. Clairvoyance 120 

CHAP. VIII. Magnetic Hearing 138 

CHAP. IX. Repugnance to Names 144 

CHAP. X. Truthfulness , 155 

CHAP. XI. Conclusion 160 

APPENDIX A. Revelations of A. J. Davis 169 

APPENDIX B. The Seeress of Prevorst 218 

Distinction of Soul, Body, and Spirit. . . . 220 

The Nerve-Spirit 22 

The Sun-Circle and the Life- Circle. . . . 225 

Separate Functions of the Soul and Spirit 228 

The Language of Spirits 234 

On Spirit-Seeing 239 

Growth of Infants in the other Life. . . . 243 

State of the Heathen in the other Life. . 245 

The Forms of Spirits 247 

Spirits seen by a Spiritual Eye 249 

The Illuminated Eye 350 

APPENDIX C. Swedish Document on Animal Magnetism. 253 

APPENDIX D. Trance of Rev. William Tennent 281 



ABBREVIATIONS 



The various works of Swedenborg are usually cited by the fol- 
lowing abbreviated titles, which are adopted in the ensuing pages. 

A. C. - - - - Arcana Celestia. 

A. E. - - - - - Apocalypse Explained. 

A. R. - Apocalyse Revealed. 

T. C. R. - - - - - Trite Christian Religion. 

C. L. - - - - Conjugial Love, 
H. & H. Heaven and Hell. 

D. L. &W. - Divine Love and Wisdom, 

D. P. - - - - - Divine Providence. 
S. D. - - - - - Spiritual Diary. 

E. U. - - - - - Earths in the Universe. 
Ath. Creed - - - - Athanasian Creed 



ERRATA. 

The reader is requested to note the two following correc- 
tions, which are important to a right view of the author's 
meaning. 

On page 163, seventeenth line from the top, instead of — 
" when the only things," — read " when the very things." 

On page 252, near the bottom, read the whole sentence 
thus : — "But a spiritual idea is one that excludes space and 
time; and as death introduces a good spirit into a sphere in 
which time and space are unknown, such a spirit comes, of 
course, into a spiritual perception of the internal contents of 
the Word." In the printing the word good was inadvertently 
omitted, and universal was erroneously written for internal 
A few other trifling errors of type occur. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The progress of scientific research at the present day has 
distinguished itself not less by the wideness of the field over 
which its triumphs have spread, than by the soundness and 
certainty of the inductions by which it is sustained. The 
bare mention of the sciences of Astronomy, Geology, Physi- 
ology, and Chemistry, indicates the vast extent to which dis- 
covery has pierced with penetrating eye; and though the 
ultimatum of its conquests has left new worlds of truth to be 
explored, yet it is impossible, on good grounds, to deny that 
its main results have been established on the impregnable 
basis of cautious observation and sound reasoning. This 
claim, however, does not preclude the admission, that theo- 
ries of causation are still broached, in many departments, 
which future and farther investigation will set aside or greatly 
modify ; but that an immense accession has been made, in 
modern times, to the store of facts and phenomena previously 
gathered, cannot be questioned. Equally indisputable is it, 
that we are continually approximating the true philosophy 
which underlies the enlarged and enlarging experience of the 
current age. That this philosophy, when reached, will con- 
duct us into the sphere of the spiritual, as the true region of 
causes, and disclose new and unthought of relations between 
the worlds of matter and of mind, is doubtless a very rea- 
sonable anticipation, and one which is even now widely 
though vaguely entertained. To multitudes of minds the 
surprise will then probably be great to learn, that this result 
had been long since not merely predicted, but actually 
attained, in the sublime system of conjoint philosophy and 



1 4 INTRODUCTION. 

theology embodied in the works of Swedenborg — a system 
which fully meets the present demand of the human mind in 
this department, and supplies all the desiderata which will be 
felt for ages to come. 

It is of course by the limited few only who understand the 
system in its length and breadth, that a concession answera- 
ble to so large a claim will be made ; by them, however, it 
will be made intelligently and cordially. They know that the 
gulf of separation between the natural and the spiritual world 
has been bridged by the disclosures of Swedenborg. They 
are assured, too, that the conviction of this truth has come to 
them in the only legitimate way — by a calm, careful, and 
diligent pondering of its internal evidence. Nor can their 
confidence in the results which they have reached be, by any 
possibility, shaken, except by a process of reasoning which 
shall show that the fundamental principles of the system are 
not the fundamental principles of human nature, and that the 
clearest intuitions of their minds are not the intuitions of the 
minds of other men. A priori objections go with them for 
nothing, so long as the specific testimonies of Swedenborg's 
truth are not encountered upon their own grounds. 

Meantime, as his adherents with one consent find them- 
selves forced to recognise a divine origin in these revela- 
tions — as they refuse for one moment to regard them as the 
outbirth or excogitation of any mere human intellect, how- 
ever exalted its order, however grand its endowments, how- 
ever rich its resources — they naturally stand in watchful pos- 
ture, looking for such incidental confirmations of the truth as 
the Divine Providence may see fit to bestow, for the sake of 
those whose faith can only be yielded to higher verities by 
being previously extorted to lower. Nor is it at all unreason- 
able to suppose, that the same considerations which have 
dictated the bestowment of a new revelation to the world, 
should operate to the gradual bringing forth of a mass of tes- 
timony that shall go to authenticate its claims. In this light 
the recent marvellous developments of Mesmerism are un- 
doubtedly to be viewed. These phenomena constitute a 
very interesting theme of study, considered simply in their 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

grosser physical relations, as pertaining to the human organ- 
ism ; but this is not the plane on which they prefer their highest 
claims to investigation. They bear as directly on psychology 
as upon physiology. They come into the sphere of Anthro- 
pology just at the point where Anthropology weds or welds 
itself to Theology. These two departments we hold it im- 
possible fairly to separate. The truths of Anthropology are 
the truths which take hold of the physical and psychical 
nature of man. They ascertain the constituent elements of 
his being. They develope the laws, corporeal and mental, by 
which he is governed in reference to the end of his being. 
Theology also deals with man as appointed to a destiny 
which shall be developed on the ground of his constitution 
as a creature, as well as of his character as a moral agent. 
In conducting inquiry on this head, we assume it as a postu- 
late, that the facts of man's nature in the present world, are 
to be regarded as a criterion of the facts of his nature in the 
other world ; or, in other words, that what man is in the 
present life, as far as his spirit is concerned, is to be consid- 
ered as an exponent of what he is to be in the other life ; for 
we hold it to be impossible to conceive, that he shall be 
substantially different in the one state of his being from what 
he is in the other. He lays aside indeed, at death, his gross 
material body, but the true man is the internal man, or the 
soul, which survives the body, and goes into the spiritua 
world in the full possession of all the essential powers and 
faculties by -which he is distinguished here. His thoughts, 
his memory, his affections, go with him when he forsakes the 
earthly tenement, for they are the elements wiiich constitute 
his essential and identical self; and this, we say , must remain 
substantially the same both before and after death. 

It follows, then, from this, that whatever goes to throw- 
light upon the inner constitution and laws of our intellectual 
being, while sojourning in the body, tends at the same time 
to elucidate the conditions of our future existence. The more 
we know of ourselves here, the more we know of what we 
shall be hereafter. This knowledge is continually being aug- 
mented by the results of physiological and psychological 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

research, and in this field of science it cannot be questioned 
that the phenomena of Mesmerism have unfolded a new 
phasis of our nature, replete with novel, striking, and 
momentous bearings upon the philosophy of mind. What- 
ever else may be said of them, they do assuredly disclose an 
entirely new class of facts in the department of psychology — 
facts, the reality of which it is impossible to explain away, 
and the importance of which it is impossible to overrate. 
After every abatement on the score of delusion, whether vol- 
untary or involuntary — after the fullest concession that may 
be demanded as to the unhappy auspices under which the 
facts have often been exhibited to the world — yet we confi- 
dently affirm that the leading phenomena, both physical and 
mental, have been clearly established ; and the rejection of 
the evidence of this, so largely accumulated, affords one of 
the most astounding proofs of incorrigible scepticism and 
direct hostility to truth that stands on record in the annals of 
the human mind. 

It falls not within the scope of the present essay, to attempt 
the proof of the dominant facts of Mesmerism, nor to deal 
with the physical branch of the subject, any further than may 
be requisite to the adequate exhibition of the higher and more 
spiritual phenomena. The general truth of the Mesmeric in- 
fluence we shall take for granted, because we consider it 
incontestably established ; and we shall address our remarks 
to those who share with us in this conviction. For ourselves 
we have seen, heard, read, examined, and experimented, 
and having, in common with thousands of others who have, 
gone through the same process, become perfectly satisfied 
as to the leading facts in the case, we come before the world 
with the results of our induction in our particular department 
of the subject — the psychological or spiritual. To those who 
are inveterately skeptical on the whole theme, we can pro- 
mise neither satisfaction nor entertainment. We shall proba- 
bly be barbarians to all such. They must first cross the ves- 
tibule before they can take their place in the temple. We 
speak to those who can understand us, and of these happily 
the number is not small. Among them we have the inward 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

assurance, that there are multitudes who are darkly groping 
for the light which we hope to proffer them. They have be- 
come acquainted with phenomena of a new and astounding 
character, and which they are confident are to be referred to 
some grand and fundamental law of our being that has hith- 
erto escaped detection. They are therefore eagerly looking 
for some clew that shall guide them to a true solution of the 
many marvels which cluster upon them. We have a strong 
conviction that this clew maybe afforded. Not perhaps that 
every mystery pertaining to the subject shall be fully cleared 
up, but we are still firm in the belief that the curtain may be 
in a good degree lifted from the hidden things of this science. 
This we propose to attempt; and that, too, by bringing the 
subject into juxtaposition with the spiritual disclosures of 
Swedenborg. The main phenomena of Mesmerism are men- 
tal. They involve the laws of mental . communication between 
one spirit and another. They bring us, therefore, into pre- 
cisely that sphere of phenomena which Swedenborg pro- 
fesses to unfold. His claim, it is well known, is to have been 
supernaturally put into a condition that enabled him to hold 
converse with the spiritual world, and to lay open to human 
view its otherwise inscrutable mysteries. 

This, we readily grant, is a high claim, and one that is to 
be substantiated by adequate evidence. Whatever may be 
our estimate of the intellectual endowments or moral worth 
of the man, his own bare assertion will be insufficient to 
beget faith in his revelations. The requisite evidence must 
either be that of miracles, or an internal evidence pertaining 
intrinsically to the disclosures themselves, by which they 
shall so approve themselves to our reason — so seize upon 
and command our convictions — that the necessity of farther 
testimony shall be superseded. It cannot be doubted that 
this latter kind of evidence is by far the most valuable and 
important; for though we do not hesitate to affirm that mira- 
culous testimony can be adduced in favor of Swedenb org's 
revelations, yet it is equally certain that those miracles would 
be explained away by the incredulous philosophy of the 
present age, nor have we any reason to suppose that they 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

would have been admitted by the mass of men, even though 
they had occurred before their own eyes. They would have 
found some mode of accounting for them other than that 
which implied their truth, just as the Jews did in regard to 
the miracles of the Saviour. The intrinsic evidence of truth 
is no sufficient guaranty of its admission where the fitting 
moral conditions are wanting. Accordingly Swedenborg 
himself never relied on them or referred to them in proof of 
the authority of his mission. He built his claims to credence 
on entirely another basis. He appealed exclusively to the 
intrinsic character of the things declared to be revealed to 
him. He submitted the whole matter to the intuitions of the 
human mind in regard to the fundamental principles involved 
in it. He left it wholly to the decisions of the universal rea- 
son of man, judging from internal evidence, to authenticate 
or annihilate the truth of his pretensions. He is indeed to be 
considered as virtually, though not formally, making one 
simple demand, which will be conceded to be entirely rea- 
sonable in itself, viz. that sufficient time should be allowed 
for the maturing of that evidence on which a portion of his 
disclosures rested, and by which they were ultimately to be 
established. This, I say, was a reasonable demand, and so 
it will appear if it be considered that he grounded his dis- 
closures of man's destiny hereafter upon the truth of man's 
essential nature here. But this nature was not fully developed 
in the age in which he lived. The true science of man, like 
all other sciences, is progressive. His bodily and mental 
constitution was not then sufficiently unfolded to afford all 
the test of the truth of his averments of which it was capa- 
ble ; nor is it yet by any means fully developed. But in the 
space of eighty or a hundred years since Swedenborg made 
his revelations, great advances have been made in the field 
of Anthropology, and we have at least neared the time when 
we are justly authorized to submit his claims to the appro- 
priate test. 

It strikes us that this condition is entirely equitable, and 
that upon the grounds of it a perfectly fair issue is made. A 
man rises up in the middle of the eighteenth century, and 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

assures the world that for moral ends of the utmost moment 
to mankind, he has been intromitted, in a supernatural way, 
into the spiritual world, and been thereby enabled to make 
known to his fellow-creatures the essential nature of Heaven 
and Hell, or, in other words, the veritable state of human 
spirits after their departure from the body. He most expli- 
citly declares that the future destiny of every individual is 
the natural, normal, and necessary result of those laws, whe- 
ther physical, psychical, or moral, by which he is distinguish- 
ed in the present life. At the same time, he goes on the 
tacit assumption that a portion of those laws were not yet, 
in his life-time, disclosed with sufficient clearness to make 
the truth of his revelations at once universally apparent. 
But the time was to come when the great facts of Anthro- 
pology would be so investigated and established as inevita- 
bly to compel the inference, that just what he has stated of 
the other life is true, and that no other conclusion can possi- 
bly be drawn. When this state of things is reached he may 
justly be entitled to say, " From the evidence afforded I claim 
to be received as a truthful reporter of the facts of the spirit- 
ual world ; and if the facts are sustained by the evidence, 
then I demand a statement of the grounds on which my 
claims to the character of a commissioned messenger from 
Heaven are denied. Could I have revealed the facts if I had 
not been divinely empowered to do it?" Can anything be 
more fair and reasonable ? Can any just exceptions be taken 
to the criterion thus propounded ? The test is before us ; we 
have only to apply it. 

Here then is the point where the phenomena of Mesmerism 
come into contact with the professed revelations of Sweden- 
borg — and the object we now have in view is to point out, 
with as much distinctness as possible, the coincidences be- 
tween them. It will, we think, be granted that if it can be 
satisfactorily shown that the leading facts of Mesmerism, in 
what may be termed its higher or spiritual manifestations, 
are precisely those which we should be led to anticipate, pro- 
vided Swedenborg's announcements of the nature of spirits 
and the laws of their intercourse are true, the inference can- 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

not well be resisted that they are true. It is certainly upon 
no different principle that we receive and rest in the New- 
tonian theory of the great law of gravitation, viz. that the 
facts which come under our observation are just such facts 
as would occur on the assumption that the theory is a sound 
one. The theory accounts, and accounts satisfactorily, for 
the facts. 

I know, indeed, that the asserted facts of Mesmerism are 
regarded by multitudes as no facts at all. They contend that 
the evidence adduced in their support is inconclusive, and 
that whatever effects of this nature may really have been 
produced, are due to other causes, and are capable of some 
other solution, than one which supposes the absolute truth of 
the alleged influence. With such persons I propose to have 
no controversy. The object of the present discussion will 
not allow of any such diversion as would be requisite to 
meet and answer in extenso the objections urged on this score. 
To those who are candidly in pursuit of evidence, I can only 
say they will find it in large abundance in the numerous pub- 
lications — now amounting to at least 2000 — devoted to the 
subject; and if this does not satisfy them, the way is open to 
put the matter to the test of their own personal experiments, 
as there is no mystery in the process, and no privileged caste 
to whom the phenomena are laid open. 

In accomplishing the object I have before me, it will be ex- 
pedient, on the one hand, to display the prominent facts and 
phenomena which usually reveal themselves in the Mesmeric 
experiments ; and, on the other, to adduce such portions of 
the disclosures of Swedenborg as obviously coincide with 
them, and explain them ; and thus show that the two classes 
of developments belong to the same order of phenomena. 
My ultimate scope is to evince that all the higher or mental 
manifestations brought out in the Mesmeric processes were 
well known, though not under this name, to Swedenborg ; — 
that he has fully and perfectly described them ; — and conse- 
quently, that whatever there is of the character of fact in the 
Mesmeric results, it reflects the character of truth upon Swe- 
denborg's revelations ; for it is impossible, when the evidence 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

is presented, not to see that we are brought in both into con- 
tact with precisely the same class of phenomena. When this 
is shown beyond dispute, it will remain for a skeptical world, 
so long habituated to ridicule Swedenborg's disclosures as 
the dreams and visions of a crazed enthusiast, to reconsider 
the verdict which it has so self-complaisantly pronounced. 
It will remain to be accounted for, how the ravings of a 
wild monomaniac should have uttered themselves, with scien- 
tific exactness, in the language of the soundest philosophy. 
Nor is it to be forgotten, that the facts which have now be- 
came science, were at the outset, upon their first annuncia- 
tion, rejected and ridiculed with just as hearty a good will as 
the reputed idle dreams of Swedenborg, which those very 
facts are now turning into philosophical verities. 

As, in the prosecution of my argument, I shall have fre- 
quent occasion to refer to my own experience, I beg leave, in 
the outset, to bespeak a charitable and favorable opinion, on 
the part of my readers, as to the intrinsic reliableness of my 
statements. I am indeed willing that he should make all the 
abatement he deems necessary, on the score of the propen- 
sity which every man has to plead strongly in behalf of any 
conviction that has sprung up and become established in 
his own mind. But in regard to the process by which this 
conviction was originally produced, I am emboldened to de- 
mand that I should be considered as having been governed 
by adequate evidence, and as having taken all due precau- 
tions to guard against imposition and delusion. So far as 
my own consciousness may be appealed to, I can say that I 
was prompted in the first instance to inquiry by the simple 
desire to attain the truth. I cannot concede that I was ac- 
tuated by any other motive than would naturally influence 
any candid and reflecting reader of these pages, to institute 
an impartial inquest into the alleged facts of Mesmerism, 
Having no personal interests to warp my judgment, and being 
well aware of the need of caution in dealing with develop- 
ments of so strange a character, I proceeded, as I think any 
careful inquirer would do, to submit the matter to repeated 
and rigid tests, and that in a great variety of forms and in an 
extended list of cases. Many of them were cases in which 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

he subjects had never before been brought under the influ- 
ence, and who were of a general character such as utterly to 
preclude the idea of any thing like trickery or deception. As 
to deception on my own part it was wholly without an object, 
and in many instances I had no one to deceive beside myself 
and the unconscious subject, with perhaps a mother or sister 
sitting by. 

If, then, any one can conceive himself as carrying on such 
a process of experiment in a fair and rational manner, with- 
out a predetermination to believe, and without a special lia- 
bility to be duped by his own senses, I trust he will be willing 
to allow to me the capability of pursuing the same course 
under the same conditions ; and if he would deem it an inju- 
rious reflection, to be charged with a weak credulity, when 
perfectly conscious that he had only yielded to the impera- 
tive force of evidence, let it not be thought strange that I also 
confess to some degree of sensitiveness on this score. I ask, 
therefore, of my reader, that he grant to me what he would 
deem it equitable should be granted to himself in like circum- 
stances. 



swedenborg's own state. 23 



CHAPTER I. 

SWEDENBORG'S OWN STATE PSYCHOLOGICALLY VIEWED. 

It would doubtless be a very natural a priori inference, that 
if Swedenborg, in virtue of his being brought into a preter- 
natural state of extacy or trance, has been enabled to disclose 
the peculiar phenomena elicited by Mesmerism, his state 
must itself have been in reality Mesmeric. The probability 
of this may also be said to be heightened by the fact, that the 
reports of clairvoyants, wherever they touch upon the mar- 
vellous things of the spirit-world, are usually found to be in 
marked analogy, so far as they go, with what Swedenborg 
himself says in regard to the same class of subjects. All this 
would seem to imply a community of condition in the re- 
spective cases ; and advantage has sometimes been taken of 
the coincidence to throw a disparaging cloud over the claims 
of Swedenborg. He has been termed a self-mesmerised clair- 
voyant, although of a very high order, and his revelations 
held to differ only in degree from those which are frequently 
elicited from other subjects, less gifted, indeed, but, in their 
measure, no less truly illuminated. An admission to this 
effect would strike at once at the root of all the peculiar au- 
thority claimed for his disclosures and doctrines, which 
makes it important that the truth on this head should be set 
hi a clear light. 

The point at issue can only be determined by presenting 
the ordinary characteristics of the Mesmeric state by the side 
of those which distinguished the case of Swedenborg. The 
main facts in the usual processes are, the agency of one per- 
son in producing what is termed the magnetic sleep in ano- 
ther, by means of certain manual and mental operations, and 
the complete subsequent oblivion, in the subject, of every- 



24 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

thing that had occurred during the trance. The case of Swe- 
denborg, in all these respects, was entirely the reverse. His 
state was not a state of sleep — it was not one which any 
other human being had any agency hi producing — nor was 
it marked by the least absence of recollection upon coming 
out of it, if indeed there was any such thing as coming out. 
On the contrary, he was hi the perfect possession of his con- 
sciousness during the whole time. Unlike the magnetic 
seers who are in a state of internal but not, at the same time, 
of external consciousness, Swedenborg was in both at once. 
His prerogative was the opening of a spiritual sight which 
left him still in the full enjoyment of his natural sight. 
" Hence he could know and distinctly describe, hi his state of 
external consciousness, what he saw with his spiritual eyes, 
and could know, with perfect accuracy, free from all illusion, 
what was going on around him in the natural world, at the 
same time that he perceived what was transpiring in the 
spiritual world. And so perfectly was he in the possession 
of external consciousness while in the exercise of his spiritual 
perceptions, that on one occasion, when moving in a funeral 
procession, he was actually engaged in conversation with 
the spirit of the person whose body he was following to the 
grave."* So wide is the interval that separates the state of 
ordinary clairvoyants from that of the illuminated herald of 
the New Jerusalem. There is, we conceive, just the same 
ground for affirming that Isaiah, and Daniel, and John were 
Mesmerised, as that Swedenborg was. 

Our main proof in regard to this position is to be derived 
from Swedenborg's own statements respecting the condition 
into which he was brought in order to be made a medium of 
divine communications. His works are rich in references 
to the psychical peculiarities of his own case, as if from a 
foresight of the very natural and proper curiosity which 
would be entertained respecting it; and the citations will be 
found highly interesting from the fact that, in making the re- 
quisite discriminations between his own and all similar states, 

he has evinced a minute acquaintance with the prominent 

- - 

* New Churchman, Vol. I. p. 33. 



SWEDENBORG'S OWN STATE. 25 

Mesmeric phenomena, and that at a time when these dis- 
coveries, under the name, were as yet unknown to the world.* 
No one acquainted with the Mesmeric effects can fail to 
recognise a most distinct portraiture of them in the following 
extract : 

" There are two kinds of visions, differing from those which 
are ordinarily experienced, and which I was let into only that 
I might know the nature of them, and what is meant by its 
being said hi the Word, that they were taken out of the body, 

* The following passage contains what is to be regarded as little 
short of a direct and formal enunciation of the remarkable power 
which has been so clearly developed since his day. The work 
from which it is taken was published in 1763 ; the clairvoyant fac- 
ulty was discovered, not by Mesmer, but Puysegur, in 17S4. 

u Human wisdom, which is natural so long as a man lives in the 
world, cannot possibly be exalted into angelic wisdom, but only 
into a certain image of it ; but still the man in whom the spiritual 
degree is open, comes into that wisdom "when he dies, and may 
also come into it by laying asleep the sensations of the body, and by 
influx from above at the same time into the spiritual (principles) of 
his mind."— D. L. f W. 257. 

Something very similar appears also in the following passage : — 
" Even with the wicked corporeal and worldly things may be laid 
asleep, and they are then capable of being elevated into something 
heavenly ; as is sometimes done with souls in the other life, par-_ 
ticularly such as are recently arrived, who have an intense desire 
to see the glory of the Lord, because they had heard so much about 
heaven when they lived in the world. Those external things with 
such are then laid asleep, and they are thus raised into the first hea- 
ven, and enjoy their desire." — A. C. 2041. 

A more distinct allusion to the fact of spirits' sleeping in the other 
world may be seen, H. fy H. 411 : " Certain spirits, not of an evil 
sort, sunk into rest, as into sleep, and thus as to the interiors, which 
are of their mind, they were translated into heaven ; for spirits, 
before their interiors are opened, can be translated into heaven, 
and be instructed concerning the happiness of those who dwell 
there ; I saw them when they had thus rested for half an hour, 
and were afterwards conveyed back into the exteriors in which 
they before were, and at the same time also into the recollection of 
what they had seen : they said that they had been amongst angels 
in heaven, and that they had there seen and perceived things stu- 
pendous, ail shining as of gold, silver, and precious stones, in won- 
derful forms, which were admirably varied ; and that the angels 
were not so much delighted with the external things themselves, as 
with those which they represented, which were divine, ineffable, 
and of infinite wisdom, and that these things were to them a source 
of joy ; besides innumerable things which could not be expressed 
in human languages, not even as to a ten thousandth part, nor be 
admitted into ideas containing any thing material." 



26 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

and that they were carried by the spirit into another place. 
As to the first, viz. the being taken out of the body, the case 
is this : man is reduced into a certain state, which is mediate 
between sleeping and waking ; when he is in this state, he 
cannot know but that he is wholly awake, all his senses 
being as much awake as in the most perfect state of bodily 
wakefulness, not only those of sight and hearing, but what 
is wonderful, that of touch also, which is then more exquisite 
than it is possible for it to be in bodily wakefulness. In this 
state also spirits and angels are seen to the life, and are also 
heard, and, what is wonderful, are touched, scarce anything 
of the body then intervening. This is the state described as 
being ' taken out of the body,' and in which they know not 
whether they are in the body or out of the body. I have 
only been let into this state three or four times, just in order 
that I might know the nature of it, and that spirits and an- 
gels enjoy every sense, even touch, in a more perfect and 
exquisite degree than that of the body. As to the other 
kind, viz. the being carried by the spirit to another place, 
the nature of this also was shown me, by lively expe- 
rience, but only twice or three times. I will merely re- 
late the experience. Walking through the streets of a 
city, and through the country, and being at the same time 
in discourse with spirits, I was not aware but that I was 
equally awake, and seeing as at other times, consequently 
walking without mistaking my way. In the meantime I 
was in vision, seeing groves, rivers, palaces, houses, men, 
and other objects : but after walking thus for some hours, on 
a sudden I was in bodily vision, and observed that I was in 
another place. Being greatly amazed at this, I jjerceived 
that I had been in such a state as they were, of whom it is 
said, that they were carried by the spirit to another place. 
It is so said, because, during the continuance of this state, 
there is no reflection on the length of the way, were it even 
many miles ; nor on the lapse of time, were it many hours or 
days ; nor is there any sense of fatigue : the person is also led 
through ways which he himself is ignorant of, until he comes 
to the place intended. This was done that I might know 
also that man may be led by the Lord without his knowing 
"whence or whither. But these two species of visions are 
extraordinary, and were shown me only with this intent, that 
I might know the nature and quality of them. But the views 
of the spiritual world ordinarily vouchsafed me, are all such 
as, by the divine mercy of the Lord, are related in the First 
Part of the present work, being annexed to the beginning 
and end of each chapter. These however, are not visions, 
but things seen in the most perfect state of bodily wakeful- 
ness, and now for several years." — A. C. 1882-18&5. 



SWEDENBORG's OWN STATE. 27 

It cannot be questioned that this is a very striking descrip- 
tion of the leading phenomena of Mesmerism. Yet the fol- 
lowing extracts will show that the state induced upon Swe- 
denborg himself was altogether of a superior nature. 

" Since by the spirit of man is meant his mind, therefore, 
by being in the spirit, which is sometimes said in the Word, 
is meant a state of the mind separate from the body ; and be- 
cause, in that state, the prophets saw such things as exist in, 
the spiritual world, therefore that is called the vision of God. 
Their state then was such as that of spirits themselves is, and 
angels in that world. In that state, the spirit of man, like his 
mind as to sight, may be transported from place to place, the 
body remaining in its own. This is the state in which I have 
now been for twenty-six years, with this difference, that I 
have been in the spirit and at the same time in the body, and 
only several times out of the body. That Ezekiel, Zechariah, 
Daniel, and John when he wrote the Revelation, were in that 
state, is evident."— T. C. R, 157. 

" Instead of miracles, there has taken place at the present 
day an open manifestation of the Lord Himself, an intromis- 
sion into the spiritual world, and with it illumination by 
immediate light from the Lord in whatever relates to the inte- 
rior things of the church, but principally an opening of the 
spiritual sense of the Word, in which the Lord is present in 
his own Divine Light. These revelations are not miracles, 
because every man as to his spirit is in the spiritual world, 
without separation from his body in the natural world. As 
to myself, indeed, my presence in the spiritual world is 
attended with a certain separation, but only as to the intel- 
lectual part of my mind, not as to the will part. This mani- 
festation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, 
is more excellent than all miracles ; but it has not been 
granted to any one since the creation of the world as it has 
been to me. The men of the golden age indeed conversed 
with angels ; but it was not granted to them to be in any 
other light than what is natural. To me, however, it has 
been granted to be in both spiritual and natural light at the 
same time ; and hereby I have been privileged to see the 
wonderful things of heaven, to be in company with angels, 
just as I am with men, and at the same time to pursue truths 
in the light of truth, and thus to perceive and be gifted with 
them, consequently to be led by the Lord." — HobarVs Life of 
Swed., p. 42. 

" I foresee that many, who read the Relations after the 
chapters, will believe that they are inventions of the imagi- 
nation ; but I assert in truth, that they are not inventions, but 



28 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

were truly seen and heard ; not seen and heard in any state 
of the mind buried in sleep, but in a state of full wakefulness. 
For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to 
send me to teach those things which will be of his New 
Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Reve- 
lation; for which end He has opened the interiors of my 
mind or spirit, by which it has been given me to be in the 
spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natu- 
ral world with men, and this now for twenty-seven years. 
Who in the Christian world would have known anything 
concerning Heaven and Hell, unless it had pleased the Lord 
to open in some one the sight of his spirit, and to show and 
teach?"— T. C. R., 851. 

"After that the problem concerning the soul was canvassed 
and solved in the gymnasium, I saw them coming forth in 
order, and before them the chief teacher, after him the elders ; 
in the midst of them were the five youths who replied, and 
after these the rest ; and when they were come forth, they 
went apart to the environs about the house, where were 
piazzas encompassed with shrubs ; and being there gathered 
together they divided themselves into small companies, which 
were so many assemblies of youths discoursing together on 
subjects of wisdom, in each of which was one wise person- 
age from the orchestra. These being seen by me from my 
lodging, I became in spirit, and in spirit I -went forth to them, 
and came near to the chief teacher, who had lately proposed 
the problem concerning the soul. He, on seeing me, said, 
* Who art thou ? I was surprised as I saw thee approaching 
in the way, that at one instant thou earnest into my sight, 
and the next instant thou wentest out of it, or that one while 
thou wast seen by me, and suddenly thou wast not seen ; 
certainly thou art not in the same state of life that we are in.' 
To this I replied smiling, ' I am not a puppet nor a Vertumnns, 
but I am alternate, one while in your light, and another while 
in your shade, thus a foreigner and also a native.' Hereupon 
the chief teacher looked at me, and said, ' Thou speakest 
things strange and wonderful; tell me who thou art.' And I 
said, ' I am in the world in which ye have been, and from 
which ye have departed, which is called the natural world, 
and I am also in the world into which ye have come, and in 
which ye are, which is called the spiritual -world ; hence it 
is, that I am in a natural state, and at the same time in a 
spiritual state, in a natural state with men of the earth, and 
in a spiritual state with you ; and when I am in a natural 
state I am not seen by you, and when I am in a spiritual state, 
I am seen ; that such should be my condition, was given of 
the Lord. It is known to thee, illustrious man, that a man 
of the natural world doth not see a man of the spiritual world, 



SWEDENBORG'S OWN STATE. 29 

nor vice versa ; wherefore when I let my spirit into the body, 
I was not seen by thee, but when I let it out of the body, I 
was seen."— C. /., 326. 

From these paragraphs it is obvious, that Swedenborg's 
extatic state was of a vastly higher order than any that come 
under the ordinary denomination of Magnetic or Mesmeric. 
As he claims — and that, as we believe, on valid grounds — to 
have been selected by the Most High himself, to be the de- 
positary of the most momentous revelations respecting the 
world of spirits, and the laws of its intercourse with the natu- 
ral world, it is reasonable to suppose that he should have 
been gifted with an interior illumination far transcending that 
which is ever witnessed in those psychical phenomena that 
are every day elicited under the hands of professed magneti- 
zers, and which are as easily exhibited as the commonest 
experiments in chemistry or natural philosophy. At the same 
time we are ready to concede, that there is not only a resem- 
blance, but an actual and intimate relation, between the states 
of the clairvoyants and of Swedenborg. They both rest to 
such a degree on the common laws or potentialities of our 
nature, that the case of the former makes that of the latter alto- 
gether credible. There is in both a species of awakening of an 
interior spiritual faculty ; or, as it is more frequently termed, 
the opening of an interior spiritual sense, which doubtless de- 
pends upon the operation of a common law. We do not see, 
at any rate, how any one who has, or has had, before him a 
clear case of the Mesmeric extase, can doubt the possibility of 
Swedenborg's having been in precisely the condition he 
affirms of himself; and the admission of the bare possibility of 
the fact removes perhaps the grand objection to its actual 
occurrence. At the same time, it would be eminently unjust 
to overlook the marked distinctions "which he himself lays 
down between them, and to confound the lower with the 
higher manifestations. It is obvious that Swedenborg recog- 
nised an immense difference between the power with which 
he was gifted, and that which is developed in the case of 
ordinary clairvoyance. He speaks with the knowledge of one 
who had experienced both ; for he tells us that although he 
was three or four times " let into " what was virtually the 



30 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

magnetic state, it was only that he might know the nature of 
it, while his ordinary state was incomparably more elevated, 
as was plainly required by the ends which were to be an- 
swered by it. He is therefore fully competent to speak upon 
the subject "as one having authority ;" and considering the 
stupendous order of his intellect, and the distinguished sanc- 
tity of his private life, no man was ever less likely to be im- 
posed upon by the hallucinations of fancy or the illusions of 
sense. That he actually needed all the securities derivable 
from these sources, in order to guard him from the invasion 
of those delusive and phantastic influences which would 
have rendered him, what multitudes still deem him, a dream- 
ing visionary, is clear from his own statements, 

" Something shall now be said concerning the discourse of 
spirits with man. It is believed by many that man may be 
taught of the Lord by spirits speaking with him; but they who 
believe this, and are willing to believe it, do not know that it is 
connected with danger to their souls. Man, so long as he lives 
in the world, is in the midst of spirits as to his spirit, and yet 
spirits do not know that they are with man, nor doth man 
know that he is with, spirits ; the reason is, because they are 
conjoined as to affections of the will immediately, and as to 
thoughts of the understanding mediately ; for man thinks 
naturally, but spirits think spiritually ; and natural and spi- 
ritual thought do not otherwise make one than by corres- 
pondences : a union by correspondences causes that one 
doth not know anything concerning the other. But as soon 
as spirits begin to speak with man, they come out of their 
spiritual state into the natural state of man, and in this case 
they know that they are with man, and conjoin themselves 
with the thoughts of his affection, and from those thoughts 
speak with him : they cannot enter into anything else, for 
similar affection and consequent thought conjoins all, and 
dissimilar separates. It is owing to this circumstance, that 
the speaking spirit is in the same principles with the man to whom 
he speaks, whether they be true or false, and likewise that he ex- 
cites them, and by his affection conjoined to the man's affec- 
tion strongly confirms them : hence it is evident that none 
other than similar spirits speak with man, or manifestly ope- 
rate upon him, for manifest operation coincides with speech. 
Hence it is that no other than enthusiastic spirits speak with 
enthusiasts; also, that no other than Quaker spirits operate 
upon Quakers, and Moravian spirits upon Moravians ; the 
case would be similar with Arians, with Socinians, and 
with other heretics. All spirits speaking with man are no 



swedenborg's own state. 31 

other than such as have been men in the world, and were 
then of such a quality ; that this is the case hath been given 
me to know by repeated experience. And what is ridicu- 
lous, when man believes the Holy Spirit speaks with him, 
or operates upon him, the spirit also believes that he is the Holy 
Spirit ; this is common with enthusiastic spirits. From these 
considerations it is evident to what danger man is exposed, who 
speaks with spirits, or who manifestly feels their operation. 
Man is ignorant of the quality of his own affection, whether 
it be good or evil, and with what other beings it is conjoined; 
and if he is in the conceit of his own intelligence, his attend- 
ant spirits favor every thought which is thence derived ; in 
like manner if any one is disposed to favor particular principles, 
enkindled by a certain, fire, which hath place with those who 
are not in truths from genuine affection ; when a spirit from 
similar affection favors man's thoughts or principles, then 
one leads the other, as the blind the blind, until both fall 
into the pit."— A. E. 1182. 

" Those who think much on religious subjects, and are so 
intent upon them as to see them as it were inwardly in them- 
selves, also begin to hear spirits speaking with them ; for the 
things of religion, whatever they are, when man from him- 
self dwells upon them, and does not modify them by the va- 
rious things which are of use in the world, go interiorly, and 
there subsist, and occupy the whole spirit of the man, and 
enter the spiritual world, and move the spirits who are 
there ; but such persons are visionaries and enthusiasts, and 
whatever spirit they hear, they believe to be the Holy Spirit, 
when yet they are enthusiastic spirits. Those who are such 
see falses as truths ; and because they see them, they per- 
suade themselves, and likewise persuade those with whom 
they flow in."— H. $ H. 249. 

" They who are simply called spirits infuse falses, inas- 
much as they reason against the truth, and are in the delight 
of their life, when they can make what is true to appear as 
false, and what is false to appear as true ; but they, who are 
called genii, infuse evils, act into the affections and concupi- 
scences of man, and scent in a moment what man desires ; 
if this be good, they bend it most cunningly into evil, and 
are in the delight of their life, when they can make good to 
be apperceived as evil, and evil as good. It was permitted 
them to act into my desires, that I might know of what na- 
ture they are, and how they act; and I can confess, that 
unless the Lord had guarded me by angels, they would have 
perverted my desires into concupiscences of evil, and this in 
a manner so hidden and silent, that I should scarcely have 
apperceived anything about it. — A. C. 5977. 



32 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

" That spirits relate things exceedingly fictitious, and lie. When 
spirits begin to speak with man, he must beware lest he be- 
lieve them in anything ; for they say almost anything ; things 
are fabricated by them, and they lie : for if they were permit- 
ted to relate what heaven is, and how things are hi the hea- 
vens, they would tell so many lies, and indeed with solemn 
affirmation, that man would be astonished; wherefore, when 
spirits were speaking, I was not permitted to have faith in 
the things which they related. For they are extremely fond 
of fabricating ; and whenever any subject of discourse is pro- 
posed, they think that they know it, and give their opinions 
upon it one after another, one in one way and another in 
another, altogether as if they knew ; and if man then listens 
and believes, they press on, and deceive and seduce in divers 
ways : for example, if they were permitted to tell about things 
to come, about things unknown in the universal heaven, 
about all things whatsoever that man desires, yet [they w^ould 
tell] all the things falsely, while from themselves : wherefore 
let men beware lest they believe them. On this account the 
state of speaking with spirits on this earth is most perilous, 
unless one is in true faith. They induce so strong a persua- 
sion that it is the Lord Himself who speaks and who com- 
mands, that man cannot but believe and obey." — S. D. 1022. 

" That the things which I learned in representations, visions, and 
from discourses with spirits and angels, are from the Lord alone. 
Whenever there w^as any representation, vision, and dis- 
course, I was kept interiorly and most interiorly in reflection 
upon it, as to what thence was useful and good, thus what I 
might learn therefrom ; which reflection was not thus attend- 
ed to by those who presented the representations and vis- 
ions, and who were speaking ; yea, sometimes they were 
indignant, when they perceived that I was reflecting. Thus 
have I been instructed ; consequently by no spirit, nor by 
any angel, but by the Lord alone, from whom is all truth and 
good : yea, when they wished to instruct me concerning va- 
rious things, there was scarcely anything but what was false: 
wherefore I was prohibited from believing anything that they 
spake ; nor was I permitted to infer any such thing as was 
proper to them. Besides, when they wished to persuade me, 
I perceived an interior or most interior persuasion that the 
thing was such, and not as they wished ; which also they 
wondered at : the perception was manifest, but cannot be 
easily described to the apprehension of men." — S. D. 1647. 

" That spirits speaking are little to be believed. Nothing is more 
familiar to spirits who are speaking, than ro say that a thing 
is so or so ; for they think that they know everything, and 
indeed solemnly assert that it is so, when yet it is not so. 



SWEDENBOftG'S OWN STATE. 33 

From experiments made several times, it may be evident of 
what quality they are, and how they are to be believed : 
when it is asked [of them] whether they know how this or 
that is, then one after another says that it is so, one different- 
ly from another ; even if there were a hundred, one would 
say differently from another ; and indeed for the time with 
confidence, as if it were so, when yet it is not so. As soon 
as they notice anything which they do not know, they im- 
mediately say that it is so : besides very many other proofs 
that they speak as if they knew, when yet they do not know." 
S. D. 1902. 

" That spirits may be induced, who represent another person ; and 
the spirit, as also he who was known to the spirit, cannot know 
otherwise than that he was the same. This has many times been 
shown to me, that the spirits speaking with me did not know 
otherwise than that they were the men who were the subject 
of thought; and neither did other spirits know otherwise; 
as yesterday and to-day, some one known to me in life [was 
represented by one] w T ho was so like him, in all things which 
belonged to him, so far as they were known to me, that noth- 
ing was more like : -wherefore, let those who speak with spi- 
rits beware lest they be deceived, when they say that they 
are those whom they know, and that they are dead. 

" For there are genera and species of spirits of a like facul- 
ty ; and when similar things are called up in the memory of 
man, and are thus represented to them, they think that they 
are the same person : then all the things are called forth from 
the memory which represent those persons, both the words, 
the speech, the tone, the gesture, and other things ; besides 
that they are induced to think thus, when other spirits inspire 
them; for then they are in the fantasy of those, and think 
that they are the same. — S. D. 2860, 2861. 

From all this the grounds will be apparent on which the 
men of the New Church unanimously refuse to admit, that 
Swedenborg's extatic state, psychologically considered, is to 
be regarded as but a peculiar form or phase of the ordinary 
Mesmeric state, and therefore that his visions are no more to 
be deemed the embodiment of revealed verities, clothed with 
the authority of heaven, than those of the Seeress of Provost, or 
any other lucid subject of these mysterious workings of the 
inly awakened spirit. To their estimate he stands before the 
world hi entirely another character. Although they profess 
not to comprehend the real intrinsic nature of the effect 
wrought upon his spirit, to enable him to hold converse with 



34 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the spiritual world, yet they have no hesitation to declare, 
that they regard it as substantially the same as that which 
distinguished the ancient prophets, when " their eyes were 
opened and they beheld the visions of God." The intuitions 
of clairvoyance they put in entirely another category. Though 
referable in the first instance to the same inherent capability 
— the same psychical potency — with that on which the exta- 
cies of the prophets rest, yet the conditions under which the 
faculty is developed in the respective cases, puts a heaven- 
wide difference between them and also between their results. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE MORE OBVIOUS MENTAL PHENOMENA OF MESMERISM. TRANS- 
FER OF THOUGHT. 

It is not, perhaps, an easy matter to draw the exact line of 
demarcation between those effects of the Mesmeric agency 
which may be denominated physical, and those that are usu- 
ally classed under the head of mental or spiritual. What are 
in ordinary parlance termed bodily sensations, are doubtless, 
in strict propriety, to be referred, not to the body, but to the 
spirit; for the body being in itself & mass of dead matter, can 
not in truth be the subject of sensation. A lifeless corpse feels 
nothing, although the material organism remains as perfect 
as before. The body plainly derives all its sensitive power 
from the animating soul or spirit. When, therefore, we per- 
ceive the evidence of a certain relation established between 
the Mesmeriser and his subject, in virtue of which a sympa- 
thy or community of sensation is manifestly seen to take 
place, we are doubtless dealing with phenomena which pro- 
perly pertain to the mental sphere. That facts of this nature 
perpetually occur in the magnetic processes, is well known 
to all those who are conversant with the subject. Indeed 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 35 

they constitute a leading part of their most familiar experi- 
ence. The operator, unseen by his subject, puts a pungent 
substance into his mouth ; the Mesmerisee immediately tastes 
it, and will usually designate the article. So let the mag- 
netiser receive a prick from a pin on his hand or any part of 
his person, and the subject will complain of being hurt, fre- 
quently in the part affected, but if not there, will still evince 
by uneasy and wincing movements, that a sensation of pain 
is experienced. And what renders the fact still more astound- 
ing is, that hi these cases the subject is in his own person 
usually altogether or partially insensible to pain from any 
source.* This, in a variety of forms, has fallen so often 

* " The operator next asked if we had any substance, of a de- 
cided or pungent taste, that we could put into his mouth? I had 
a few strong ginger lozenges in my pocket ; I placed one of them 
in his mouth, while he was holding the patient's hands in his. He 
then asked her, in a low voice, what she had in her mouth 1 Her 
lips moved, as if in the act of tasting, and she replied, without 
hesitation, ' It is ginger. 5 I then took the operator's seat, silently 
putting into my own mouth a quantity of common salt, from a 
salt-dish on the table. I took firm hold of the patient's hands, and 
she was again asked what she had in her mouth. Her lips moved 
again, as in the act of tasting, and she hesitated. 1 had, up till 
this time, kept the salt on my tongue, without any action or suction, 
so that it was not dissolved, or, at all events, had never touched 
the palate. The operator told me to swallow the substance which 
I had in my mouth. This I accordingly did, and she immediately 
said, c It is salt.' Several of the other visiters tried other sub- 
stances, — sugar, water, ginger again, — and she never failed to state, 
with perfect correctness, what the substance was. One of the 
gentlemen who accompanied me was sitting opposite the patient, 
holding her hands in his, and when we pulled his hair, or pinched 
his arm, or pricked his hand with a needle, she shrunk at every 
one of these operations, — told distinctly, and without a moment's 
hesitation, whether her hair was pulled, her arm pinched, or her 
hand ' jagged with pins,' as she called it. The singular part of this 
experiment is, that while she feels most acutely anything that 
may be done to a person holding her hands at the time, she is to- 
tally unconscious and insensible in her own person. Her own 
hands were pricked with a needle, and a few hairs were pulled 
by the roots from her head, without the slightest shrinking or symp- 
tom of sensation." — Lang on Mesmerism^ p. 102. 

" Did any one strike or hurt me in any part of the body when 

Anna M was in sleepwaking, she immediately carried her 

hand to a corresponding part of her own person. Thus she would 
rub her own shoulder^wnen mine was smarting with a blow, mani- 
festing that the actual nerves of that part were., pro tempore, 



36 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

within the range of my own observation, and frequently while 
being myself in a different room from the subject, that not a 
shadow of doubt as to the grand fact remains. It has been 
repeatedly tried in the presence of witnesses who were in- 
vited, when in another room, to submit the matter to any test 
they pleased, and whose peculiar mode of producing sensa- 
tions in the magnetizer was extemporaneously suggested to 
their own minds, and could not therefore have been in any 
way the result of collusion. 

But upon this class of phenomena I do not propose to 
dwell, although I cannot but regard them as being intrin- 
sically as wonderful as anything within the range of the 
Mesmeric developments. For what can be more surprising 
than this unsignalled transfer of sensation ? Yet as they will not 
be regarded as falling within the range of the more purely 
spiritual characteristics of the state, I for the present pass them 
by ; and so also with respect to the effect of volition upon the 
muscular organization of the other party. This is one of the most 

restored to their functions. Once an incredulous person came 
near me unawares and trod upon my foot, which was quite hidden 
under a chair. The sleepwaker instantly darted down her hand 
and rubbed her own foot, with an expression of pain. Again., if 
my hair was pulled from behind,, Anna directly raised her hand to 
the back of her head. A pin thrust into my hand elicited an equal 
demonstration of sympathy. 

" I have already remarked that, when the mesmeriser eats., or 
drinks, or smells anything., his patients go through the same mo- 
tions,, as if the impact of the substances were on their own nerves. 
But this, it may be said., might be referred to the simultaneity of 
motion which I have shown to exist occasionally between the sleep- 
waker and the Mesmeriser. I have,, however, a very strong proof 
that the former has really an impression on the nerves of taste cor- 
responding with that of the latter. Three of my sleepwakers (on 
whom alone I tried the experiment) could in no way distinguish 
substances when placed in their own mouths, nor discriminate be- 
tween a piece of apple and a piece of cheese; but, the moment 
that I was eating, they, seeming to eat also, could tell me what I 
had in my mouth. Once I tried this, before many witnesses, on 
the sister of Theodore, with some pieces of fig which I had care- 
fully concealed, and the experiment answered perfectly. 

il Again, Anna M heard my watch ticking when I held it to 

my own ear, though not when she held it to her own. In the 
former case, she assured me that she heard the sound exactly as if 
the watch were close to her own ear." — Townshend's Facts in Mes- 
merism, p. 150. 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 37 

obvious among the mesmeric manifestations. The move- 
ment of the head, hands, and arms, will generally, especially 
in fresh subjects, be found to be obedient to the will of the 
magnetizer.* The cause of this we pretend not to explain, 
any farther than to say, that it depends upon the peculiar 
psychological relation which subsists, for the time, between 
the parties, and upon this a strong light at least will be cast, 
by what we shall by and by adduce from Swedenborg, 
respecting the influence of spheres. 

In relation to both these classes of phenomena, I would 
here however observe, that if the asserted facts are true, Mes- 
merism is true. The great gulf of admission is shot when 
the evidence is conceded to be sound, that one person comes 
into such a peculiar relation to another, that his sensations 
and volitions, without the medium of vocal or ocular, or any 
other outward signs, are reflected from the corporeal organ- 
ism of the other. There are in fact no subsequent develop- 
ments which tax credulity any more than this. If my sen- 
sations may thus be made to pass into another corporeal sys- 
tem, and be there reproduced — if my volitions can be made to 
act on the nerves and muscles of another frame, and be there 
followed by the same effects as in my own — then it is per- 
fectly easy to conceive that my thoughts also may be, in like 
manner, transferred from my own mind to that of another. 
For it is plain that neither my sensation nor volition fall simply 
upon dead matter. They come into contact with that inte- 
rior psychical apparatus which animates and orders the phy- 
sical organism, and which is equally the seat of thought 
How can it be any more difficult for my thought to be repro- 
duced in another than my taste, my smell, or my sense of pain ? 
Are not these all really mental phenomena ? I say, if these 



* The truth of this may easily be put to the test by a very simple 
experiment. Select a person who has a soft moist hand. Let him 
lay it with the inside of the palm upwards upon his knee. Let the 
operator draw his own palm several times over it with considera- 
ble vigor. If he then holds his hand over it, gradually elevating it 
as with the purpose of raising the other hand, it will often be found 
to yield to the attraction and follow it., as the metal does the mag- 
net,, to a greater or less height. When this experiment succeeds, 
the same effect may usually be produced by simply willing the 
hand to rise. 

3 



38 MESMER AJSD SWICIXEiNBORG. 

facts are true, the grand conclusion results that the substantial 
claims of Mesmerism are established. And surely alleged 
facts of this nature are worthy the investigation of scientific 
minds. They ought to be put to the test, and their truth or 
falsehood unequivocally settled. The process is perfectly 
simple, involving nothing operose or ambiguous. There are 
hundreds of individuals in the community, having control of 
Mesmeric subjects, who would be most happy to afford every 
facility to any commission of medical or scientific men, to- 
wards submitting the matter to the most rigid and satisfac- 
tory test. They are willing to do it under circumstances 
which shall preclude the possibility of their own collusive 
agency in any one step of the process. They will consent to 
leave the specific arrangements very much to the choice and 
dictation of the arbiters, with however one clause of excep- 
tion, viz. that the object of the inquest shall be, at any given 
time, a single class of phenomena only. They will not consent 
that what are called the physical and the mental shall be indis- 
criminately mixed up in the investigation, so that a failure in 
clairvoyance, for instance, shall nullify, as it will be very apt to 
do, the evidence of the truth of sympathetic sensation. As they 
have not a command over the laws and influences which 
often modify or frustrate the mental effects, they deem it due 
to themselves not to* peril the judgment of the whole by the 
possible non-success of a part, when their experience teaches 
them that this will invariably be the result. The success of 
one class of experiments will next to never be admitted, if 
there is the least failure in another. Their ground, therefore, 
which is perfectly fair, is this — they will say to any commis- 
sion : — " Gentlemen, we profess ourselves able and entirely 
willing to afford you conclusive proof that our sensations and 
volitions are reflected, without the use of any intermediate 
signs whatever, in the person of the Mesmerised subject. We 
pledge ourselves to this and to nothing more. If you are 
satisfied with the evidence, we are willing to leave it to you 
to draw the legitimate inference from the facts established, as 
to the possibility and probability of such higher manifesta- 
tions of the state as are often said to be witnessed, and as we 
are assured are witnessed, but which we do not see fit to en- 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 39 

gage to produce, and that simply for the reason that we some- 
times find hidden causes at work, over which we have no 
control, that prevent them. Among these is a certain impres- 
sion of sacredness in the minds of subjects as to the intended 
use of these remarkable powers, which is not favorable to 
exhibitions aiming solely to gratify curiosity. But we claim, 
that if the one class of phenomena be true, the other may be 
also ; and not only so, but that the fair inference is, that they 
are true, inasmuch as the same psychical principles are brought 
into play in both." Multitudes of endorsers to this challenge 
are ready at any time to step forth. But w T ill it be accepted ? 
Yes, when a pure unadulterated Love of Truth shall over- 
sway the paltry pleadings of self-interest, as controlled by 
popular prejudices. 

As the evidence of the transfer of thought in the Mesmeric 
relation is conclusive to the minds of all who are conversant 
with the subject, I shall make that the theme of my present 
remarks. It is to this feature of the phenomena that Sweden- 
borg's elucidations pre-eminently apply. In adducing the 
proofs of the fact I shall draw in part from my own experi- 
ments, and in part from -the relations of others, the truth of 
which I know no reason to question, since thousands of sim- 
ilar testimonies could easily be brought together. Should this 
be deemed a loose and unscientific method of procedure—-a 
hasty endorsement of apocryphal narratives — and that too in 
a department of inquiry where nothing ought to be taken for 
granted — I can only repeat in reply, that I write not to con- 
vince skeptics, but to inform believers. I have those in my 
eye who know the grand asserted facts to be true ; and even 
if the particular accounts cited should be in some points, 
upon strict investigation, liable to doubt, still there remains 
an immense amount of statements of a similar character, 
sufficient to establish the main position. The object of the 
present work being to explain facts, and not to substantiate 
them, I feel entirely at liberty to adduce such instances as 
shall subserve that design, without entering into a critical 
estimate of their authenticity. I repeat, if they are not true, 
thousands of similar ones are. As to my own statements of 
facts, they may be relied on as punctiliously true. The reader, 



40 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG, 

however, will of course exercise his own discretion as to the 
degree of credit to which he may think them entitled, and so 
also as to the inferences he may be constrained to draw from 
them. I have little concern as to the verdict of another's judg- 
ment, when fortified by that of my own conscience. 

While engaged in writing the work on the " Resurrection 
of the Body," I was put in communication with a lady in the 
magnetic state, to whom I proposed the question, whether 
she would mentally visit my study — which, by the way, as 
my friends can testify, does not afford a very remarkable 
specimen of orderly arrangement. She alluded to this cir- 
cumstance — spoke of the queer appearance of my books — that 
many of them were old, some open, and some shut, but that 
they were in such strange languages that she could scarcely 
read one of them. I then asked her if she could see my 
manuscript papers ? " Yes," she replied, " but I do not see 
how you are ever going to get them printed, unless you put 
them together. Why don't you arrange them better ? " I had 
said nothing about any intention of printing. I then proposed 
the question, whether she could tell me the subject I was 
writing upon, of which I am perfectly confident she had not 
the least intimation.* After a short pause she said, in a solilo- 
quizing way, " Raised up — the raising of the dead — the dead 



* I am well aware of the futility of all attempts, in cases like the 
present, to convince the skeptical reader of the rjrevious ignorance, 
on the part of the subject, of the facts adverted to. He will per- 
sist in believing that this young lady, for instance, had in some 
way became apprised of my intention of publishing a work on the 
Resurrection, and of the particular views it was designed to advo- 
cate. To this I can only oppose my own absolute assurance, that 
this was not the case. She was then almost an entire stranger to 
me, moving in an entirely different walk in life — I had never before 
seen her but twice or three times— there were no circumstances 
that could tend to make her acquainted with my private purposes 
of writing — and at a period when many of my intimate friends 
were not aware of my being engaged in the 'work alluded to, it is 
very unlikely that an obscure milliner girl should have obtained 
the knowledge of it. There was intrinsically just as much reason 
for the supposition, that five hundred other young ladies, in the 
same vocation in the city of New York, should have known of my 
purpose and my subject, as that she should. I say this, however, 
with very slender hope that any assertion or asseveration to this 
effect, will have the least weight with the majority of persons who 
have never witnessed any thing similar. 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 41 

raised up." To this she added that she had never before 
heard of any such ideas on the subject as those she perceived 
in my mind, nor had she ever known any one who had. She 
was of the Episcopal Church, and had never been in contact 
with those who had called in question the literal resurrection 
of the body.* 

On several subsequent occasions I put this power of fol- 
lowing my thoughts to still further tests. I once took her to 

* I adduce in this connection the following extract from Miss 
Martineau's Letters, to which the reader 'will give as much or as 
little weight as he may deem it to deserve. I think I may state it, 
however, as a general fact, that Mesmeric subjects, whatever were 
their previous opinions, know in that state nothing of the resurrec- 
tion of the body. 

" On Saturday, October 12., she had told us that she now ' saw the 
shades of things' that she wanted to know, and that she should 
* soon see clearer.' The next evening, she went into a great rap- 
ture about the ' gleams ' becoming brighter, so that she should soon 
see all she wished. The light came through the brain, — not like 
sunlight, nor moonlight ; ' No, there is no light on earth like this : ' 
the knowledge she got ' comes astonishingly — amazingly — so pleas- 
antly !' 'How is the Mesmerizing done which causes this V 'By 
all the powers at once.' 'What powers V 'The soul, and the 
mind, and the vital powers of the body.' Then, as we inquired — 
6 The mind is not the same as the soul. All are required in Mes- 
merizing, but the mind most, though Mesmerism is still something 
else.' ' Those three things exist in every human being, (the soul, 
the mind, and the body,) separate from one another; but the 
faculties belonging to them are not the same in everybody; some 
have more, some less. The body dies, and the mind dies with it ; 
but the soul lives after it. The soul is independent and self-existent, 
and therefore lives for ever. It depends upon nothing.' Here I 
prompted the question, ' What then is its relation to God 1 ' She 
nastily replied, ' He takes care of it, to reunite it with the body at 
the day of judgment.' Here I was forcibly and painfully struck 
with the incompatibility of the former and latter saying, not (as I 
hope it is needless to explain), from any waiting on her lips for 
revelations on this class of subjects, but because it was painful to 
find her faculties working faultily. As I felt this disappointment 
come over me, an expression of trouble disturbed J.'s face, so inef- 
fably happy always during her sleep. ' Stop,' said she, ' I am not 
sure about the last. All I said before was true — the real Mesmeric 
truth. But I can't make out about that last; I heard it when I was 
awake — I heard it in church — that all the particles of our bodies, 
however they may be scattered, will be gathered together at tiie 
day of judgment ; but I am not sure.' And she became excited, 
saying that it ' bothered her,' what she knew and what she had 
heard being mixed up." — Miss Martineau's Letters on Mesmerism, 
p. 12. 



42 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the interior of a cotton factory, which she first thought to be 
a church from the number of people collected there, but after- 
wards said she saw them taking off something white, and 
then remarked that there was so much noise and confusion 
that she could not stay there. On coming out she described 
the surrounding scenery with great correctness, though she 
had never been within several hundred miles of the place. 
At another time I took her in the same way to the Falls o 
Niagara. She described the fall of water; and said she 
should become deaf if she staid near it. On still another oc- 
casion I requested her to describe what I was then contem- 
plating in my own mind, — a torch-light procession in Broad- 
way. She spoke of the banners, the mottoes of which she 
tried to read, the horses, and the multitudes of people, say- 
ing, " There's no end to them." In all these cases she had 
no clew whatever to my thoughts, except the thoughts them- 
selves. 

With this subject I have tried scores of similar experiments 
with similar success. Her answers were not in all cases 
given with the same precision, but there was still evidence 
that her thoughts were controlled by mine, and though the 
impression was somewhat obscure, yet the original prompt- 
ing idea was plainly to be recognised. And I may here re- 
mark, that nothing is more unreasonable than to make the 
degree of the reflection of thought the criterion of its reality. 
The great question is, whether there is decisive evidence that 
the silent action of one mind is made in any degree to bear 
upon that of another. If so, Mesmerism is true. There are a 
thousand secret influences which prevent the perfect transfer 
of mental conceptions. But the claim ought to be conceded 
if the phenomena be witnessed even in the smallest degree. 
If a certain effect is, in full view of all the conditions, fairly to 
be attributed to but one cause, that cause is entitled to be 
recognised as the true one.* 

* On another occasion I was present when a clairvoyant young 
lady was put in communication with a distinguished actress, with 
whose mind she came in such close contact, that she detailed in 
its main features, and with the utmost correctness, the entire plot 
of a play of which the other lady was in the habit of acting the 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 43 

The following cases, taken from different authorities, will 
be seen to be of the same character. If they are doubted, it 
will be by those who would doubt any statements of a simi- 
lar kind, no matter by what testimony supported. With such 
we have no argument to maintain. We refer them to their 
own senses. 

" On a great number of small cards there were written be- 
forehand the different movements which the persons present 
may make the somnambulist perform, by presenting to the 
Magnetizer such of the cards as may express their desire. 
M. Ricard, after this plain admonition, repeated each time, 
Callixte, my friend, pay attention, I am going to speak to you ; 
reads mentally the phrase, or phrases, which were just pre- 
sented to him, adds not a word, makes no gesture, and Cal- 
lixte, who constantly has the bandage on him, obeys his 
thought. 

" a. The first card presented to M. Ricard bears this phrase : 
Let the somnambulist raise, at the same time, his two legs. The 
Magnetiser, after his usual admonition, proceeds, but Callixte 
does not comprehend ; his lower extremities are agitated by 
different movements, but his feet do not quit the ground. 

" b. The second card bore this phrase : Let the somnambulist 
raise the left arm. The mental order is given ; Callixte performs 
it, and raises mechanically the left arm, saying, with a tone 
of impatience, that he does not understand. 

" c. The third card : Let the somnambulist rise, take four steps, 
and touch with his right hand the chest of his Magnetizer. The 
same procedure on the part of M. Ricard ; Callixte reflects an 
instant, rises, walks, counting his steps, hesitates some sec- 
onds, then finishes by completing the performance of the 
mysterious order which he has received. 

" d. Callixte is seated at the extremity of the room, in such a 
manner as to turn his back to us ; an organ is going to play 
an air in the ante-chamber, and M. Ricard says to me, s When 
you will make me the signal, the somnambulist shall beat 
the time of the air which is going to be performed, and 
he will cease to beat when you will express to me the 
wish that he should do so by another signal.- This being 
agreed on, the organ commences; I make a signal to M. 
Ricard, and Callixte beats the time: some minutes after, 

principal female part, and which, the Mesmerisee had never read 
or heard described* The fact of the relation of the plot can be 
attested by five witnesses of most unquestionable integrity, and the 
character of the young lady is a sufficient voucher with all who 
know her for the truth of her statement, that she had never read 
the play. 



44 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

make my second signal, and Callixte ceases to beat the time. 
I recommence, he recommences ; I wish him to stop again, 
and he stops ; quicker than lightning my thought flies from 
me to the Magnetizer, and from the Magnetize? to the som- 
nambulist. 

" e. I myself draw at hazard three of the cards from a hat 
where they were mixed ; their united sense forms this phrase : 
Let the somnambulist rise, mount on a chair, and let himself fall 
backwards into the arms of his Magnetizer. The cards being 
presented to the Magnetizer, Callixte rises, mounts on a 
chair, hesitates, then lets himself fall all at once into the arms 
of M. Ricard, who fancies himself upset by the violence of 
the shock. 

" These are the facts such as they occurred, without any 
change, exaggeration, or addition by me ; fifty-nine persons 
would be there to convict me of a lie if I acted otherwise. I 
know already what consequences disinterested readers will 
draw from them. With respect to medical men most of them 
will not believe them, because that, as they do not under- 
stand them, the whole is either a self-deception or a decep- 
tion of them. To explain common facts, as they explain 
everything, and to deny extraordinary facts, that is their eter- 
nal system, the vicious circle, around which their incredulity 
has been running for the last sixty years." — Teste An. Mag., 
pp. 124-126. 

" The singular faculty with which certain extatics, and a 
small number of somnambulists, are endowed of penetrating 
into the thoughts of the persons around them before these 
thoughts have assumed a sensible form, is one of those which 
have excited the greatest share of incredulity. However, 
even before direct observation had convinced me of the ex- 
istence of this faculty, the testimonies which go to establish 
it are so numerous, and seem to me so respectable, that I felt 
myself rather disposed to believe in it. In fact, since the 
Middle Ages, at the time of those epidemic extasies, which 
Professor Andral was the first to consider in a truly philo- 
sophical point of view by ranging them in the number of 
pathological facts ; from the time of the convulsionaries and 
of the possessed, the communication of thought was an admitted 
fact, so much so, that it constituted the pathognomonic cha- 
racter of possession, and it was not permitted to proceed to 
exorcisms before its existence was ascertained. Father Surin, 
when charged to recapitulate the proofs of the possession of 
the religious ursulines of Loudun, presents us one of the most 
indisputable, that they told the most secret thoughts. ' The day 
after my arrival,' writes this candid ecclesiastic, * there was 
at the exorcism a man who expressed to me a desire to see 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 45 

if the demon knew our thoughts. I bid him to form a com- 
mand in his mind, and, after he had made it, I pressed the 
demon to do that which the man had commanded him ; after 
having refused for some time, he went to take on the altar 
the case where the Gospel of St. John was, and this man 
stated positively that he had commanded in his mind the 
demon to show the last gospel which had been said at mass. 

" ' One of our fathers, wishing to try if it was true that the 
demon knows our thoughts, formed another command within 
his breast for the demon, who was on duty, and then formed 
another, — in a word, within the space of an instant, he formed 
five or six commands, and, revoking them one after the other, 
he tormented the demon by saying, obediat ad mentem. The 
demon repeated quite aloud all the commands which this father had 
formed in his mind for him. He commenced at the first, then 
said, " But monsieur does not wish it." Being at the seventh, 
he said, "We'll see whether we shall execute this," where he 
has at length fixed.' 

"In a case communicated by M. Barrier, a physician of 
Privas, to Dr. Foissac, the subject of it was a young extatic 
female, named Euphrosine, who possessed so perfectly the 
gift of divining the thoughts of the person with whom she 
happened to be, that she readily kept up a very well-con- 
nected conversation, in which one of the interlocutors spoke 
but mentally. ( At the time of my second visit,' says M. Bar- 
rier, ' I found Euphrosine, with her body forming the arch of 
a circle, in the middle of her room. She rested on the ground 
by the heels and the top of her head ; more than twenty per- 
sons were around her ; all observed the most religious silence. 
I approached, came up close to her, and wished the patient 
good morning, carefully checking my tongue and lips. 

" * Good morning, Monsieur Barrier,' she replied. 

" ' When will you come to La Voutte ? ' 

" * As soon as ever it is possible.' 

" I turned towards the mother, and said to her, — 

" ' Your daughter divines the thoughts, place yourself in 
' contact with her and try.' We soon heard Euphrosine pro- 
nounce these words, ' To Alissas.' A moment after, she re- 
peated, in a sprightly manner, 4 No, to Alissas, I told you.' 
Madame Bonneau had proposed to her daughter to go the 
following day to Cous to walk with her; the second time she 
pressed the same place for a walk. A friend of hers placed 
herself in contact with her, and presently we collected these 
words, ' Eh, fool, do you think I do not know that you are to 
go to Vernoux ? ' The friend grew pale, but recommenced 
her questions. 6 No, it is very far from thai,' replied Euphro- 
sine. This lacPy stated to us that she had said to the patient, 
mentally, that she had to go the next day the journey to 
3* 



46 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

Vasence, and that she would execute her commissions if she 
had any to give her; at her second question, she asked her 
if she should find her husband at Vernoux. Three or four 
days after, I met this person at Vernoux ; she c omes up to 
me, and, with a terrified air, she told me of the absence of 
her husband. A wagoner then comes, and immediately we 
heard the words, 6 No, to la Voutte.' This man had proposed 
to her to bring her to Aubenas. The greater part of those 
present addressed mental questions to her; she answered 
firmly and instantaneously with the greatest precisim. Some 
children also wished to make trials, but she sent them away 
good-humoredly, calling each by name.' 

" Cases similar to that now stated are, no doubt, very nu- 
merous in the annals of the medical sciences, and we might 
readily adduce proofs of it if we were not afraid to augment 
our work by two many quotations ; but a matter which it. is 
of importance to us to observe is, that solely to the existence 
of this faculty of mental penetration must be referred the sup- 
position, formerly asserted by exorcists and magnetisers, viz. 
that the possessed of the one, and the somnambulists of the 
others, understood all languages.* We shall take the oppor- 
tunity at another time of recurring to this subject. 

" The communication of thoughts is observed less frequently 
hi magnetic somnambulists than in extatics ; and yet, what 
is somewhat remarkable, it is one of the first faculties noticed 
by the magnetizers of Mesmer's time, "who set it down as a 
characteristic trait of the Magnetic sleep. Thus we read in 
the letter of the Marquis of Puysegur, partly transcribed in 

* ' We read in the Demonomanie de Loudun, — ' M. Launay de 
Barille, who had resided in America, bore testimony that, in a voy- 
age he made to Loudon, he had spoken to the religious persons the 
language of certain savages of this country, and that they answered 
him very readily. 

' The Bishop of Nimes, having put questions in Greek and Ger- 
man, was answered in both languages. 

* The Bishop of Nimes commanded Sister Claire, in Greek, to 
raise her veil and kiss the grating in a place which he mentioned; 
she obeyed him, and did several other things which he desired 
her, — a circumstance which made the bishop declare, publicly, 
that he must be an Atheist or a fool who did not believe in posses- 
sion. 

' Some physicians interrogated them also in Greek on some 
terms of their science, which were very difficult, and known only 
by the learned amongst them, — they gave a clear explanation of 
them. 

' Some gentlemen of Normandy certified in writing that they had 
questioned Sister Claire de Sarelly in Turkish,* Spanish, and 
Italian, and that she answered them very readily.' 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT 47 

our introduction, that he made the peasant Victor dance in 
his chair by singing an air to him mentally. 

" For my part, I have seen but a very small number of 
somnambulists who were endowed with this faculty ; I have, 
however, seen some, and among the modern Magnetizers 
several respectable writers also quote instances of it. 

"Alexander Bertrand, among others, relates,* that, on un- 
magnetizing the first somnambulist he ever had an opportu- 
nity of observing, he had one day, at the same time, the 
determined wish that she should not awake. Convulsive 
movements were immediately observed in the somnambulist. 

" ' What ails you ? ' said the Magnetizer to her. 

« ' Why,' answered she, ' do you tell me to awake, and you 
do not wish that I should awake ? ' 

"M. Bertrand again cites in the same workf the example 
of a poor woman, uneducated, not even knowing how to 
read, and who, nevertheless, was capable, in a state of som- 
nambulism, of understanding the meaning of words, the sig- 
nification of which was wholly unknown to her hi her waking 
state. This woman explained to him, in the most accurate 
and ingenious manner, what was understood by the term 
encephalon, which he proposed to her, — 'A phenomenon,' 
adds Bertrand, ' which, if people will not see in it a chance 
as difficult, perhaps, to be admitted as the faculty which it 
supposes, can only be explained by acknowledging that this 
woman read in my very thoughts the signification of the word 
on which I questioned her." — Teste Am. Mag., pp. 117-122. 

" When a somnambulist has anything in his hand, the 
Magnetizer may will him to give it to any person in the room, 
and it will be done accordingly, though not a word be said 
by any one. If another individual attempt to take it by grasp- 
ing it, or by insinuating his hand between the object and the 
hand of the person to whom it is offered, the somnambulist 
evades him with the rapidity of thought, and places it where 
he was requested to place it. I have seen several persons 
try in this manner, all at a time, to seize the object, but with- 
out success. With almost inconceivable dexterity of evasion, 
the somnambulists retained their own hold, and conveyed 
the charge in safety. 

" What is equally singular, was related to me by Mr. Pot- 
ter. A patient of his with whom I am acquainted, when she 
is in the somnambulic state, though she does not see, that is, 
has no clairvoyance, when requested to hand any object to 
another, though the Magnetizer endeavor to exert no influ- 
ence at the time, will not give it up to any but the person 
designated. She does not offer any explanation of this her- 

* Traitedu Somnambulisme, Paris, 1823. P. 247. f P. 729. 



48 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

self, but says she always knows when the right person pre- 
sents his hand, even when he says nothing. This has been 
■witnessed by several of my friends." — Deleuze An. Mag., Ap- 
pendix, p. 68. 

We have now to direct our inquiry to the pages of Swe- 
denborg, to see how far this striking fact receives illustration 
from his disclosures. It is obvious that the laying aside of 
the material body must, in the nature of the case, effect a 
great alteration in the mode of intercourse with other beings. 
Spirit then comes into more immediate contact with spirit, 
and the transmission of thought and feeling naturally becomes 
more direct and sensible. As the very elements of their being 
are Affection and Intellect, they, according to him, mutually 
impress themselves upon each other in such a manner, that 
the mental workings of one are distinctly made known to 
another. Nothing can be more express to this point than 
the following extracts : 

" Souls are surprised, on their entrance into another life, 
that there is such a communication of the thoughts of others, 
and that they instantly know, not only the character of ano- 
ther s mind, but also that of his faith. But they are told, that 
the spirit has its faculties much improved when it is sepa- 
rated from the body. During the life of the body there is an 
influx of sensible objects, and also of phantasies, arising from 
those things which thence inhere in the memory: there are 
also anxieties about the future, various lusts excited by things 
external, cares respecting food, raiment, habitation, children, 
and other things, which are not at all thought of in the other 
life : wherefore on the removal of these, as it were, clogs and 
hindrances, together with the corporeal organs, which are of 
a gross sensation, the spirit must needs be in a much more 
perfect state. The same faculties remain, but much more 
perfect, more lucid, and more free ; especially with those who 
have lived in charity and faith in the Lord, and in innocence. 
The faculties of these are immensely elevated above what 
they had in the body, even at length to the angelic nature of 
the third heaven. 

" Nor is there only a communication of another's affections 
and thoughts, but also of his knowledge, and that so com- 
pletely, as for one spirit to think that he knew whatever 
another knows, although he had before no knowledge of 
such things. Thus all the attainments of one are communi- 
cated to others. Some spirits retain what they are thus made 
acquainted with, but others do not. Communications are 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 49 

effected, both by the discourse of spirits with each other, and 
by ideas accompanied with representations : for the ideas of 
their thoughts are representative at the same time, and hence 
all things are abundantly presented to view. More may be 
represented by a single idea, than can be expressed by a 
thousand words. But the angels perceive w T hat is within -in 
every idea ; what is the affection, what is the origin of that 
affection, what is its end ; with many things beside of an in- 
terior nature. 

" In the other life delights and felicities are also wont to be 
communicated from one to others by a real transmission, 
which is wonderful ; and then others are affected by them in 
the same manner as himself: nor does he experience any 
diminution of them from their communication to others. It 
has also been granted me thus to communicate enjoyments 
to others by transmissions. Hence may appear the quality 
of the happiness of those who love their neighbor more than 
themselves, and who desire nothing more ardently than to 
transfer their own happiness to others. This tendency to 
communicate derives its origin from the Lord, who thus com- 
municates happiness to the angels. Communications of 
happiness are continual transmissions of this kind ; which 
are effected without any reflection on them as proceeding 
from such an active origin, and from a sort of open determi- 
nation of the will." — A.^C. 1389-1392. 

" A certain spirit came to me not long after his decease.* 
It w T as perceived that he had been devoted to studies, con- 
cerning which I conversed with him ; but then suddenly he 
was taken up on high. Thence he discoursed with me, say- 
ing that he saw things of such sublimity as no human mind 
could comprehend. * * * He said, moreover, that from 
thence he was able to penetrate thoroughly into my thoughts and 
my affections, in which he could perceive more things than he 
could express ; such as causes, influxes, the origins thereof, 
and how ideas were mixed with earthly things, and that 
they were to be altogether separated; with other particulars." 
—A. C.1760. 

" It is one of the wonders of the other life, which scarce 
any one in the world can believe, that, as soon as any spirit 
comes to another, he instantly knows his thoughts and affections, 
and what he had been doing to that time, thus all his present 
state, exactly as if he had been with him ever so long ; such 
is the nature of communication." — A. C. 5385. 

" Because spirits possess all the things which are of man's 
thought and will, and angels the things which are yet more 
inward, and thereby man is most closely conjoined to them, 



50 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

therefore man cannot otherwise apperceive and feel, than 
that it is himself who thinks and wills ; for so the case 
is with communications hi the other life, that in a society 
containing similar spirits, every one believes that to be his 
own, which is another's ; wherefore the good, when they 
come into a heavenly society, enter instantly into all the in- 
telligence and wisdom of that society, insomuch that they 
do not know otherwise, than that those things are in them- 
selves ; so also it is with a man, and with a spirit with him. 
As often as anything has fallen into the thought, and into the 
desires of the will, the source of which I have not known, so 
often, when I have willed to know it, it has been shown me, 
namely, from what societies it came, and sometimes by what 
spirits as subjects ; and also then they have discoursed with 
me, and confessed that they thought the thing, and likewise 
that they knew that it flowed in with me, and appeared to 
myself as in me. The deceitful, who appear directly above 
the head, have occasionally flowed in with me with such 
subtlety, that I knew not whence the influx was, and also 
that I scarcely perceived any otherwise, than that what 
flowed in was in myself, and from myself, as is the usual 
perception with others ; but because I knew of a certainty it 
was from another source, perception was given me from the 
Lord so exquisite, that I apperceived each single influx of 
them, also where they were, and who they were ; when they 
observed this, they were exceedingly indignant, especially 
that I reflected upon what came from them ; that reflection 
flowed in through the angels. Those deceitful ones princi- 
pally insinuated such things as were contrary to the Lord ; 
and then it was also given to reflect upon this, that no one in 
hell acknowledges the Lord, but that on the contrary they 
treat Him with indignity so far as it is allowed them ; yet that 
they are not displeased to hear mention made of the Father, 
the Creator of the universe."— A. C. 6193, 6197. 

" How difficult it is for man to believe that spirits know his 
thoughts, might be manifest to me from this. Before I dis- 
coursed with spirits, it happened that a certain spirit accosted 
me in a few words concerning the subject of my thoughts : I 
was amazed hereat, that a spirit should know what I was 
thinking about, because I supposed that such things were 
deeply concealed, and known to God alone. Afterwards 
when I began to speak with spirits, 1 was indignant that I 
could not think anything but what they knew, and because 
this might be troublesome to me ; but afterwards by some 
days' habit it became familiar to me. At length it was also 
known, that spirits not only apperceive all things of man's 
thought and will, but even many more things than the man 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 51 

himself; and that the angels apperceive still more, namely, 
intentions and ends, from the first through the middle to the 
last. And that the Lord knows, not only the quality of the 
whole man, but also what his quality will be to eternity. 
Hence it may be manifest, that nothing at all is hidden, but 
what man inwardly thinks and devises is open to view hi the 
other life, as in clear day." — A. C. 6214. 

" That innumerable things are in one idea, might also be 
manifest to me from this, that angels perceive in a moment 
the life appertaining to a spirit and to a man, on merely hear- 
ing him speak, or on looking into his thoughts." — A. C. 6617. 

In various other parts of the disclosures, Swedenborg 
speaks of the extension of thought into societies, in such away as 
to lead to the impression that there is, in the other world, a 
diffused element of thought not unlike that of light in the 
present world. There is an incessant mental radiation — a 
perpetual efflux of thoughts — into which, as an intellectual 
atmosphere, all spirits come, and apart from which their 
minds cannot act. " There was a certain spirit," says Swe- 
denborg, " who believed that he thought from himself, and 
thus without any extension out of himself, or any consequent 
communication with societies which are out of him ; to con- 
vince him that he was in error, all communication with the 
societies nearest him was taken away, hi consequence of 
which he was not only deprived of thought, but fell down as 
if dead, except that he threw his arms about like a new-born 
infant." — H. fy H., 203. The Mesmeric process brings the 
spirit, in a degree, into this general sphere of thought, in the 
spiritual world, in which is every one's mind even in the 
present world ; and as the Magnetizer's is in more definite 
communication with his, it is with that that his own more 
especially assimilates. 

But this feature of the revelations is more fully developed 
m what follows. 

" An arcanum concerning the state of faith and of love with 
man in this world, and afterwards in the other, into which he 
comes after death, shall be made known. The arcanum is 
this, that all the thoughts of man diffuse themselves into the 
spiritual world, in every direction, not unlike the rays of light 
diffused from flame. Inasmuch as the spiritual world con- 
sists of heaven and hell ; and heaven consists of innumera- 
ble societies, and in like manner hell, hence the thoughts of 



52 JVIESMER AND SWEDENBQRG 

man must needs diffuse themselves into societies ; spiritua 
thoughts, which relate to the Lord, to love "and faith in him, 
and to the truths and goods of heaven and the church, into 
heavenly societies ; but thoughts merely natural, which re- 
late to self and the world, and the love thereof, and not to 
God at the same time, into infernal societies. That there is 
such an extension and determination of all the thoughts of 
man, has hitherto been unknown, because it was unknown 
what the quality of heaven is, and what the quality of hell, 
thus that they consist of societies, consequently that there is 
an extension of the thoughts of man into another world than 
the natura], into which latter world there is indeed an exten- 
sion of the sight of his eyes ; but it is the spiritual world into 
which thought extends itself, and it is the natural world into 
which vision extends itself, since the thought of the mind is 
spiritual, and the vision of the eye is natural. That there is 
an extension of all the thoughts of man into societies of the 
spiritual world, and that no thought can be given without 
such extension, has been so testified to me from the experi- 
ence of many years, that with all faith, I can assert it to be 
true. In a word, man with his head is in the spiritual world, 
as with his body he is in the natural world : by head is here 
meant his mind, consisting of understanding, thought, will, 
and love ; and by body is here meant his senses, which are 
seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch : and whereas 
man as to his head, that is, as to his mind, is in the spiritual 
world, therefore he is either in heaven or in hell, and where 
the mind is, there the whole man is with head and body, 
when he becomes a spirit ; and man is altogether of a quality 
agreeable to his conjunction with the societies of the spiritual 
world, being an angel of a quality agreeable to his conjunc- 
tion with the societies of heaven, or a devil of a quality agree- 
able to his conjunction with the societies of hell. From what 
has been said, it is evident that the thoughts of man are ex- 
tensions into societies either heavenly or infernal, and that 
unless they were extensions they would be no thoughts ; for 
the thought of man is as the sight of his eyes, which, unless 
it had extension out of itself, would either be no sight or be 
blindness. — Ath. Creed, 2, 3. 

"One morning it was shown manifestly, that in every idea 
and minute affection were contained things innumerable, also 
that these ideas and affections penetrated into societies. I 
was kept for some time in a certain affection and consequent 
thought, and then it was shown how many societies con- 
curred; there were five societies, which manifested them- 
selves by living discourse : they said what they thought, and 
also that they apperceived that those thoughts appertained 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 53 

to me ; moreover that they knew also, to which I did not at- 
tend, the causes of the things which were thought, and also 
the ends : the rest of the societies, which were several, to 
which the thought was extended, were not so manifested ; 
they were also more remote. With the extension of thought 
from the objects which are the things thought of, the case is 
as with the objects of sight : from these diffuses itself a sphere 
of rays to a considerable distance, which falls into the sight 
of man, and this to a greater and lesser distance according to 
the sparkling and flaming property in the object ; for if it be 
flaming, it appears at a much greater distance than what is 
cloudy and dusky. The case is similar with the internal 
sight, which is that of the thought, in regard to its objects : 
the objects of this sight are not material, like the objects in 
the world, but they are spiritual, and therefore they diffuse 
themselves to such things as are in the spiritual world, thus 
to truths and goods there, consequently to the societies which 
are therein ; and . as what is flaming in the world spreads 
itself to the greatest extent, so does good and its affection in 
the spiritual world, for flame corresponds to the affection of 
good. From these things it may be manifest, that the quality 
of man's life is altogether according to the societies into 
which his thought and affection extend themselves, and ac- 
cording to the quality and quantity of the extension. 

" That the spheres of the thoughts and affections extend 
themselves around into the spheres of societies which are far 
off thence, might be made manifest tome also from this, that 
whilst I was thinking from affection concerning such things 
as particularly moved a society at a distance, they then dis- 
coursed with me on the same subject, telling what their sen- 
timents were. This has repeatedly been done." — A. C. 6601- 
6602. 

" I have observed when discoursing with angelic spirits, 
that the affections and thoughts appeared like a stream round 
about, and the object of the thought was in the midst encom- 
passed with that stream, and that this was thence extended 
in all directions. From this also it has been made manifest, 
that the thoughts and affections extended themselves on all 
sides to societies." — A. C. 6606. 

" It has been shown by living experience, how angelic ideas 
flow- in into the ideas of the spirits, who are beneath, and 
therefore in grosser ideas. A store of ideas from the angelic 
heaven was presented visible as a bright cloud distinguished 
into little masses ; each little mass, which consisted of things 
innumerable, produced one simple idea with a spirit, and it 
was afterwards shown, that a thousand and a thousand 
things were in it, which were also represented by a cloud to 



54 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the eye of the spirits. I afterwards discoursed on these things 
with the spirits, showing, that they may be illustrated by the 
objects of sight, inasmuch as one object, which appears sim- 
ple, when it is viewed through an optic glass, immediately 
presents to the sight a thousand things which w T ere not be- 
fore visible ; as in the case of the lesser worms which appear 
as one obscure object, but "when viewed in a microscope not 
only are several, but each is seen in its form; and if they be 
subjected to still more minute examination, there are pre- 
sented to view organs, members, viscera, and also vessels 
and fibres. So likewise the case is with the ideas of thought, 
a thousand and a thousand things being contained in each of 
them, although the several ideas together, whereof thought 
is composed, appear only as a simple object. But yet in the 
ideas of the thought of one person there are more things con- 
tained, than in the ideas of the thought of another ; the abun- 
dance of ideas contained is according to extension into socie- 
ties."— A. C. 6614. 

" I have spoken with spirits concerning influx into the ideas 
of thought, that men cannot in any wise believe that such 
innumerable things are contained therein, for they conceive 
thought to be merely what is simple a^ single ; thus they 
judge from the exterior sensual. The spirits with whom I 
then discoursed, were in the opinion, that there was not 
anything within in ideas ; this they impressed upon them- 
selves in the life of the body. But that they might compre- 
hend that they perceived Innumerable things as one thing, it 
was given to say, that the motions of myriads of moving 
fibres concur to one action, and that also at the same 
time for that action all things in the body move and adapt 
themselves, both in general and in particular, and yet that 
little action appears simple, and single, as if nothing of 
the sort were in it. In like manner that innumerable things 
concur together to form one expression of the voice, as the 
folding of the lips and of all the muscles and fibres thereof: 
also foldings of the tongue, of the throat, of the larynx, of the 
windpipe, of the lungs, of the diaphragm, with ail the mus- 
cles thereof in general and in particular : since man apper- 
ceives one expression thence, merely as a simple sound which 
has nothing in it, it may be manifest how gross is the per- 
ception derived from the sensual; what then must be the 
perception from the sensual concerning the ideas of thought 
which are hi a purer world, and thus more remote from the 
sensual. 

" Inasmuch as things so innumerable are in the ideas of 
thought, the angels can know, merely from a single expres- 
sion which proceeds from the thought, what is the quality of 



TRANSFER OF THOUGHT. 55 

the spirit, or what is the quality of the man. This also has 
been confirmed by experience : when truth was also named, 
as was done by several spirits successively, it was instantly 
heard whether hardness, or harshness, or softness, or infan- 
tility, or tenderness, or innocence, or fulness, or emptiness, 
or falsity, was therein ; also whether it was pretended, or 
closed, or open, and in what degree it was so ; in a word, the 
very quality of the idea was heard, and this only in what 
was general ; what then must be the case in the particulars 
which the angels perceive ? 

"Inasmuch as man thinks from the sensual, such things 
are obscure to him, yea so obscure, that he does not know 
what an idea is, and especially that thought is distinguished 
into ideas, as speech is into expression ; for thought appears 
to him to be continuous, and not discrete, when yet the ideas 
of thought are the expressions of spirits, and ideas of more 
interior thought are the expressions of angels. Ideas, inas- 
much as they are the expressions of speech, are also sono- 
rous among spirits and angels; hence the tacit thought of 
man is audible to spirits and angels, when it so pleases the 
Lord. How perfect the ideas of thought are in comparison 
with the expressions of speech, may be manifest from this, 
that a man can think more things within a minute, than he 
can utter or write in an hour : it might also be manifest from 
discourse with spirits and angels, for then in a moment I have 
rilled a general subject with singulars, affection being adjoined, 
whence the angels and spirits distinctly comprehended all 
things, and many more, which appeared about that subject 
as a cloud."— A. C. 6622-6624. 

The fact which we have above considered — the transfer of 
thought — may perhaps be regarded as the cardinal fact of 
the Mesmeric developments. In the whole category of its 
marvels there is nothing more wonderful — nothing more diffi- 
cult to believe, yet nothing more easy to prove. Still farther 
evidence of the truth of the phenomenon will be adduced in 
the succeeding chapter on Phantasy, and in a subsequent one 
on Memory. Indeed nearly all the mental effects resolve 
themselves ultimately into some form of this. Two minds 
come, in such a way, into conjunction, that the operations of 
one are reproduced or reflected in the other. Yet the result 
is not reciprocal. The mind of the agent does not take on 
the internal workings of that of the subject. The grossness 
of the bodily apparatus interposes a barrier to their access to 
the consciousness. Yet it is easy to conceive, that if both 



56 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

were disembodied the interchange would be mutual, or at 
least more mutual. The predominance of sphere might give 
one an advantage over the other, but the law of the relation 
is clearly indicated by the facts displayed, and we see no 
possibility of denying that Swedenborg has laid open the 
heart of the mystery. Is not the coincidence of the phe- 
nomena too palpable to be questioned ? Where then is the 
basis on which to found a doubt that he was truly admitted 
into the very penetralia of the spirit-world ? But if this be con- 
ceded, what inference more legitimate, than that the Divine 
Wisdom had special ends of the utmost moment to the world 
to accomplish, by thus translating the spirit of this remarka- 
ble man into the sphere of spirits ? And do we not read 
these ends in the uses actually achieved by them ? Has he not 
unveiled the hidden world of souls, and shown its thousand- 
fold points of contact with the world of bodily being ? Is not 
this a great mission ? Is it not a stupendous discovery to 
acquaint us with the laws and conditions of the future life — 
to disclose the forms of destiny — to expound the essential 
nature of heaven and hell ? Do revelations, thus fraught with 
the characters of intrinsic truth, bear the impress of dreaming 
phantasy ? Do madmen rave in reason, and dream out sublime 
systems of philosophy? Who would not crave to be de- 
mented if such are its issues — if the ruin and chaos of a 
wrecked intellect not only afford the materials, but sponta- 
neously rear themselves into a splendid and symmetrical 
Temple of Truth ! We look for wonders both in coming time 
and hi eternity, but we anticipate very few that shall surpass 
that which we every day behold hi the absurd solutions 
given to the greatest moral problem that has ever addressed 
itself to the intelligence of the human race. 



PHANTASY. 57 



CHAPTER III. 

PHANTASY. 

The phenomena developed in the present chapter differ not 
essentially from those detailed in the preceding. The psy- 
chological principles on which they rest are the same. They 
illustrate, however, the power of a peculiar form of thought 
to reproduce itself in another mind. They show that the 
most arbitrary and phantastic creations of one intellect may 
be mysteriously infused into another, and then be recognized 
as bona fide realities. The veriest gambolings of imagination 
shall become, when thus transferred, the most assured truths 
to the mind of the other party. A handkerchief thrown into 
the lap shall be transformed, at the will of the operator, into 
an infant, a kitten, a bird, or a serpent which shall be rejected 
with horror. No fact of this condition is better established 
or more familiar than that to which we now allude. In the 
cases which follow, this law of the Mesmeric state is dis- 
played in a most striking manner, and, in some of them, in a 
higher form than is usually witnessed. We are unable of 
course to verify the truthfulness of the report, but facts which 
have been a hundred times verified authorize us to rely im- 
plicitly upon it. 

" Dr. C. then requested a tumbler of water to be brought ; 
and after drinking about half of it himself, he roused Miss 
B., who had apparently sunk into a profound and quiet sleep, 
as she afterwards did repeatedly, and requested her to drink 
some of it. She did so, when Mr. H. drew to a corner of the 
room, and, after writing on a slip of paper, beckoned me to 
him and simply held the paper before me, on which was 
written * Will the contents of the tumbler to be castor oil,' or words 
to that effect. He then beckoned to Dr. C, who went to him, 
an# reading the sentence, indicated by a nod that he would 
cheerfully do it, and retaking his seat, which was placed 
between two and three feet before Miss B., he said, without 
moving a limb, or uttering a syllable more, ' Come, Lurena, 
drink a little of this, and you will feel better, I think.' Al- 



58 MESMER AJID SWEDEXBORG. 

hiding, as I supposed, to a severe headache, of which she 
had spoken to us in the course of our conversation, before 
the Doctor's entrance. She raised the tumbler to her lips, and 
suddenly replaced it hi her lap, with evident nausea and aver- 
sion. Dr. C. ' Come, drink a little of it. It is very good. 5 
Miss B. ' Good ! ' moving her lips, ' you know it is not good ! ' 
Dr. C. < Why ? ' Miss B7 ' Why ? It makes me sick. 5 Dr. C. 
6 0, no ; drink one mouthful. 5 She did so ; and had she wit- 
nessed the ceremony of taking pure castoi a thousand times, 
the apparent effect on her could not have been more true to 
nature. Mr. H. again summoned the Doctor, and whispered 
too low to be heard by any other person in the room, '177//, 
now. that it is snuff.' He returned, and repeated only words 
resembling those used hi the first experiment. On looking 
into the tumbler, she seemed to smile ironically, and said, 
( Drink this! drink this! you know I cannot; 5 with an ex- 
pression of countenance which any one, seeing snuff to be 
the contents of a tumbler about to be drank off, must have 
assumed. I then requested Dr. C. in the same manner, to 
8 will it to be pleasant lemonade.' After long persuasion, without 
a word or gesture, however, which conld have indicated the 
nature of my request, on Dr. C. 5 s part, she put the tumbler 
cautiously to her lips, and tasting, drank the whole of the wa- 
ter that remained. Dr. C. ' Well, Lurena, how do you like 
that? 5 Miss B. ' Why, it's very good, but a little too sour.' 
Some one of the strangers present now requested in a whis- 
per that he would ' iriU the tumbler to be filled with an ice cream.' 
I sat at Miss B. 5 s elbow, and watched both her countenance 
and Dr. C.'s words and motions. Collusion, or anything like 
a secret understanding between them in what followed, I 
believe to have been impossible. Dr. C. ' Come, Lurena, drink 
what I have got for you now. You will find it very good.' 
Rousing she looked into the empty tumbler, and continued 
silent. On further inquiry, she said, ' You know I cannot 
drink it. 5 Dr. C. 'Why: 5 Miss B. 'I've been waiting for a 
spoon this half hour.' A spoon was then brought and given 
her. She raised the tumbler, and imitating to perfection the 
manner of a lady taking an ice cream in a fashionable and 
elegant circle, she finished it, and replaced the tumbler in her 
lap, as one waiting for a servant to take it. Dr. C. ' Well, is 
not that good ? 5 Miss B. ' Yes, it's very good, but a little too 
highly flavored for me. 5 I should have mentioned that while 
eating it, she put her hand to her face in apparent pain. Dr. 
C. ' What is the matter with your face ? ' Miss B. ' Whf, it 
makes my teeth ache, it's so cold.' I then requested Dr. C. to take 
the tumbler from her, and, in a whisper scarcely audible to 
him, to ' wiU a black kitten to be in her lap.' He assented, and, 
taking his seat before her, as I did mine at her side, he said, 



PHANTASY. 59 

without previously uttering a syllable even in whisper to any 
one, or making the least motion, ' Lurena, come, wake up 
and see what you have in your lap.' She seemed gradually 
to wake. 'What have you in your lap?' Looking down, 
she instantly began to draw her arms up with aversion at the 
object seen, but remained silent. Dr. C. ' What is the matter ? 
Is it not pretty ? ' Drawing her arms still further up, she said, 
evidently offended, 'Pretty? no. W T hat have you put that 
in my lap for ? I sha'nt take it ! I wont ! ' Dr. C. ' 0, yes, 
take it.' Miss B. < I wont.' Dr. C. < Well, if you do not like it, 
give it to me.' Lifting it precisely as one would by the nape 
of the neck, and tossing it, she said, ' There, take the dirty black 
thing!' The preceding experiments were tried, in conse- 
quence of our having heard that similar ones had been made 
without failure in any instance ; and I am as certain as I 
am of being able to see or hear anything directly before me, 
that no direction, either by a whisper, pause, or gesture, was 
given by the magnetizer to the magnetized ; and I know that 
the directions I gave D. C. could not have been anticipated by 
him or any one else." — Leleuzgs An. Mag. Append, p. 131-134. 

The subjoined narrative exhibits this feature of the subject 
in a somewhat higher light. In reading it, it is important to 
bear in mind that what the author terms magnetizing an in- 
animate object, is really a mental process by which he im- 
agines or wills such and such transformations to take place 
as are alluded to. 

" Rosalia, on whom the following experiments were made, 
is a young girl of about eighteen years of age, of a somewhat 
sanguineous temperament. Her nervous system does not 
appear to be too much developed. She would enjoy very 
good health, if, from the age of puberty, she did not suffer, 
from time to time, rather violent pains in the stomach. Her 
education is that of a poor artisan, solely occupied in sup- 
porting by the labor of her hands an aged and feeble mother. 
To this must be added, in order to have a physical and mora, 
appreciation of the subject, that Rosalia never left a province 
which was very distant from Paris. 

" Rosalia being in a state of somnambulism in a separate 
and well-closed closet, a ball of wool is magnetized by the 
person who put her ta-sleep, and placed in one of the hats of 
the men, which were thrown carelessly in a corner of the 
room. The somnambulist is then introduced into the apart- 
ment, and invited to seek out an object, without giving this ob- 
ject any other designation. She begins by walking around 
the room, touches different pieces of furniture, but stops not; 
then, at length, after having carried her examination towards 



60 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the corner above mentioned, she discovers the ball of wool, 
which she brings with her without hesitation. 

" Rosalia is asleep for some minutes. An incredulous doctor, 
with the intention of satisfying himself, as to whether the mag- 
netic action maybe really concentrated on inanimate objects, 
carries away the Magnetizer out of the room, and proposes 
to him to operate on a step of the stairs — the tenth was the 
one chosen by the doctor. The tenth step, setting out from 
the bottom of the stairs, receives the magnetic passes. At 
the moment of withdrawing, the Magnetizer wishing, in his 
turn, and at the same time, to make an experiment of his own, 
declares that he mentally places a barrier above the tenth 
step, to prevent Rosalia from continuing her route. Things 
thus prepared, the doctor leads back the Magnetizer, whom 
he no longer quits, to the somnambulist still asleep. Ac- 
cording to his express wish, she is aroused without being 
touched, and merely by some gestures made at a distance. 
It is only after a serious examination of the perfectly normal 
state of the young girl, that, on the order of the incredulous 
doctor, Rosalia takes a taper in order to go to bed. In so do- 
ing she must necessarily pass by the stairs to the magnetiz- 
ed step. After five or six minutes they go in pursuit of her ; 
the doctor passes first, and what is his astonishmemt, when 
having arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he perceives the 
young girl standing up and immovable on the tenth step. 
The following dialogue then takes place : — 

" ' Rosalia, what, then, are you doing there ? ' c I am asleep, 
sir.' ' And who has put you to sleep ?' { The step on which 
I stand : there escapes from it a hot vapor, which has as- 
cended to my legs, and has put me to sleep.' ' Well, then, 
since you are asleep, are you going to bed V i I cannot, sir, 
because there is a barrier which prevents me from passing.' 

" Rosalia, being asleep, was placed at the extremity of a 
room, with her head turned towards the wall. An incredu- 
lous person requires that the Magnetizer, placed at the dis- 
tance of several feet from the somnambulist, should break 
one of the feet of the chair on which she was sitting. Scarce- 
ly were two or three passes directed towards the object de- 
signed, than Rosalia rises abruptly, and cries out, ' My God ! 
I am a going to fall, my chair has but three feet.' Another 
time, in the absence of Rosalia, the floor of the room was 
magnetized, with the intention of changing it into ploughed 
land. When the girl, who is fast asleep, was introduced, 
she refuses to advance, and pretends that the furrows prevent 
her from walking, and that she knows not where to place her 
feet. The same floor also assumes the appearance of a fro- 
zen river, &c, according to the demand made on it. 
The following facts consist in proving that Magne- 



PHANTASY. 61 

tism may give to matter a virtue which it does not possess 
of itself. Examples : — Rosalia is in a closet adjoining that in 
which her magnetiser is, and in a state of somnambulism. 
Before a bracket are placed, casually, two chairs, one of which 
is very light. This is precisely the one which the Magnetiser 
is requested to load with a considerable weight, which he 
sets about doing by means of numerous passes. The opera- 
tion being over, the somnambulist is introduced. After some 
experiments of another kind, she is asked to take one of the 
chairs and to sit near the fire. Chance made her select that 
one of the two which was really the heavier. Rosalia brings 
it with ease up near the fire. A lady being in want of a seat, 
Rosalia is asked to go for the other. She goes up to it, takes 
it with her two hands, then seems to make a violent effort to 
raise it; the chair remains immovable. At the request of 
those around her she tries again, but still without success ; 
however, her muscles are tense, her face is flushed ; at last, 
she cries out, with a voice, altered, as it were, by the violent 
efforts she had made, ' My God ! I never shall be able, it is 
too heavy.' A book was magnetised on the chimney-piece, 
with the intention of making it adhere to the marble. At the 
request made to Rosalia, she goes to bring it, but her efforts 
to raise it are unavailing ; only, as the will of the magnetiser 
had no other end than to affix to the marble that part of the 
cover in contact "with it, Rosalia opens the book, turns over 
the leaves, but without being any more able to tear k from 
the chimney-piece, than if one of the sides of the covers were 
really affixed to it Thus, again, a saucer having been mag- 
netised, Rosalia is requested to take and carry it. At the mo- 
ment she presents it, her fingers were contracted tightly on 
the china, and she declares that she cannot let it go. Such 
was the will of the magnetiser, communicated through the 
medium of the object. 

"We now come, we might almost say, by an insensible 
transition, to a series of facts which still constitute a particu- 
lar class. For we have seen that the modifications occa- 
sioned in the form of objects were such in the experiments of 
the ploughed land and of the frozen river, that they may be 
well considered as creations completely new. It will be un- 
derstood then, at least by analogy, that the magnetic action 
may create objects entirely imaginary. Here are some exam- 
ples of it. Rosalia, in a state of somnambulism, converses 
with some persons. An incredulous spectator entreats the 
magnetiser to place on an unoccupied seat an open pair of 
scissors. Some passes are made on the seat pointed at. 
After about a quarter of an hour the somnambulist is made to 
rise ; then, as if brought by mere chance, she is invited to sit 
4 



62 MESMEU A2SD SWEDENBOR6. 

on the seat which has just been magnetised : Rosalia refuses 
c Why, then, will you not sit down ?' they ask her. * Because 
I do not wish to hurt myself.' ' Come, now, do sit down. 
' No, sir, there are scissors there that would hurt me.' 

" Another time, at the request of a person who does not 
yet believe, a wooden pillar was raised magnetically in the 
centre of the room ; there is attached to it mentally a cord 
which is to go round the neck of the somnambulist. Rosalia 
cries out almost at the instant : ' Ah ! sir, how this squeezes 
my neck.' ' What then ? ' ' The cord fastened to this wooden 
pillar.' On asking her where this pillar is, after she was freed 
from the imaginary tie of which she complained, she gets up 
and points with her finger to the very place w T here the mag- 
netiser had raised his fantastic pillar. 

" Rosalia is sleeping her magnetic sleep calmly on the sofa. 
Her magnetiser raises her feet, then passes his hand between 
them and the floor. This signal, according to the request 
made of him, is to place a stool under the feet of the som- 
nambulist. Actually, from this moment the two feet of Ro- 
salia remain in the air as if they were supported by an object 
placed beneath them. When strong pressure is made on 
them, they are forced to yield ; but then the entire body fol- 
lows the movement, and instantly as the action ceases the two 
feet rise together in the position given them by the magnet- 
iser. This is somewhat the effect experienced by a person 
jolted in a vehicle ; the point of support on which the feet 
rest, rises and falls, without, however, the relations of posi- 
tion of the different parts of the body being sensibly changed. 
After having remained a long time in this way without evinc- 
ing any fatigue, Rosalia is asked why she keeps her feet 
raised. ' Because,' says she, * I have placed them on a stool.' 
Without enumerating a greater number of facts of the same 
kind, in order to terminate this order of phenomena, here is a 
case, which it is useful to notice, because we shall have oc- 
casion to recur to it. Rosalia is in a closet adjoining a draw- 
ing-room in a state of somnambulism ; the communication 
between these two apartments is closed, but another door 
giving egress from the drawing-room to a staircase has re- 
mained open. The magnetiser places a barrier there mag- 
netically; then Rosalia is introduced by a stranger. She is 
then requested to go out to the staircase; but she declares that 
she cannot do so, ■ because,' says she, ( this door is barred' 
In order that she may pass through, it is necessary that the 
magnetiser should, in a manner, break the charm. 

" Not only, as has been just seen by the above examples, 
can the magnetic action create for Rosalia objects completely 
imaginary, but, further, at the will of the magnetiser, it de- 



PHANTASY. 63 

prives her of the power of seeing objects which really exist, 
and which are placed in states so as to be perfectly distinct 
to her in the ordinary state. Thus a simple magnetic pass is 
sufficient for a piece of furniture, a person, a portion of a 
room, to disappear from the eyes of a somnambulist. Ques- 
tion her by surprise, lay for her all the snares you will, never 
will she see any of the persons or things that her magnetiser 
shall have rendered invisible, and what should scarcely leave 
any apprehension of fraud in this experiment is, that those 
wdio may be so disposed with respect to the subject of invisi- 
bility will try in vain to call forth in the somnambulist a laugh, 
astonishment, fright, &c, &c, or any other impression what- 
ever. 

" All those who have given their attention to magnetism 
have remarked, that one of the characters of somnambulism 
is not to leave any recollection on awaking, except, how- 
ever, the magnetiser may have had the intention of making 
an idea survive the cessation of the magnetic effect. Then 
the thought conceived under the sway of the agent is con- 
tinued in the ordinary state, and almost always produces the 
expected result. This observation must necessarily incline 
one to think, that perhaps it might be possible to transport 
into the natural life of somnambulists some other phenome- 
non of their magnetic existence. With respect to invisibility, 
numerous experiments have left no doubt of this possibility. 
We shall content ourselves by quoting merely the following 
fact. Rosalia is asleep. A thick layer of carded cotton is ap- 
plied to her, covered with a bandage fastened behind her head. 
In this state she is brought into the midst of people whom 
she does not know. Among these, they select, for the pur- 
pose of rendering invisible, a strange person whom she 
never could have seen. After some magnetic passes, this 
person goes with two others clad in the same manner behind 
a screen. The bandage is then taken from Rosalia, — she is 
demagnetised. She resumes her habitual countenance, con- 
verses as usual with those around her. Suddenly an arm 
rises above the screen. Rosalia is one of the first to perceive 
it; a second arm then appears, — she sees it again ; but when 
the third is raised near the others, she persists in saying that 
she sees but two. The third arm is really that of the person 
rendered invisible. This experiment is repeated ten times, 
twenty times, always in a different way ; never does Rosalia 
perceive the person that had been rendered invisible, though 
that person changed clothes with those who were placed be- 
hind the screen with him. 

" A fact of the same kind took place with respect to the 
barriers of which I have spoken. Whilst Rosalia is in a state 



64 MESMER AND SWEBENBOZIG. 

of somnambulism the entrance-door of the closet in which 
she is was shut magnetically, though in reality it is open. 
At the conclusion of the sitting, when Rosalia is entirely 
awake, she takes leave and prepares to go out; but on ap- 
proaching the door, she says she sees a cloud which, accord- 
ing to her own expression, obstructs her, and prevents her 
from passing. In vain does the magnetiser strive to dissipate 
this apparition : he cannot succeed until after having put the 
girl to sleep again. 

" We now come to the last experiment, the object of which, 
as of the preceding, is to make the fantastic creations of mag- 
netism pass into real life ; and this time, as the case is not 
my own, I quote from the original, so as to omit no detail : — 

" « After having magnetised Rosalia in the little closet of 
Madame ***, I ask what it is they desire I should make her 
see, "A little girl," replied one of the bystanders. I then 
approach a chair, and strive in making some passes to fix my 
idea to it, as we have often done together. Rosalia, whom I 
bring right before me, after a moment's hesitation, concludes 
by saying to me, " It is little Hortense." Having sent her into 
another room, I remove the chair from its place, in order that 
she may not recognise it ; but I hesitate, and place it in seve- 
ral different places before fixing it. I then g© to awake Ro- 
salia in the closet of Madame ***, then I proceed with her 
into the little room. Now that she is well awake, what does she 
see ? Not one little girl, but six little girls, to my great aston- 
ishment. In vain I endeavor by transverse passes to abolish 
my manifold creation ; 'tis quite impossible. Curious to have 
an explanation of all this, I again put Rosalia to sleep, and 
ask her the solution of the enigma. " In good faith, sir," re- 
plies the girl, " you need not have removed the chair from 
its place ; then I should have seen but one child ; but every 
where you put it down, the fluid passed through, and formed 
a child quite like to that one which is above." " What is that 
fluid ? " " A slight wind passing out of your fingers ? " ' — Teste 
on An, Magnetism, p. 218-225. 

Such, then, are among the undeniable mental effects wrought 
hi connection with the Mesmeric state. The state is such 
that what is subjective to one mind becomes objective to an- 
other. In other words, mental phantasies are transferrable, 
and become real entities to the recipient. Their nature is 
sufficiently obvious without explanation. The question is, 
how far this fact is confirmed or illustrated by Swedenborg 
in his disclosures of the laws of spiritual operation. A very 
limited acquaintance with his works will suffice to show, that 



PHANTASY. 65 

it is continually recognised by him in his relations of the 
phenomena of the other life. It is among the most familiar 
experience which he is all the time giving forth of his com- 
merce with the world of spirits, that spirits act upon each 
other by the infusion of their phantasies, and that a great por- 
tion of the misery of the wicked is derived from this source. 
The extracts that follow contain not a hundredth part of the 
testimony, all equally pertinent, which might be adduced 
from his revelations, bearing on the point in hand. 

" The way in which visions take place, and what visions 
are genuine, is known to few : and because I have now for 
several years been almost continually with those who are in 
the other life, as may abundantly appear from the First Part 
of this work, and have there seen stupendous things ; so also 
I have been informed concerning visions and dreams by lively 
experience, and am at liberty to relate the following particu- 
lars respecting them. The visions of some are much spoken 
of, who have said that they have seen many things : they did 
see them, it is true, but in phantasy. I have been instructed 
concerning those visions, and it was likewise shown me how 
they exist. There are spirits who induce such appearances 
by phantasies, that they seem as if they were real. For ex- 
ample ; if anything is seen in the shade, or by moonlight, or 
even in open day if the object be in a dark place, those spirits 
keep the mind of the beholder fixedly and unceasingly in the 
thought of some particular thing, either of an animal, or a 
monster, or a forest, or some such thing ; and so long as the 
mind is kept in this thought, the phantasy is increased, and 
that to such a degree, that the person is persuaded, and sees, 
just as if the things were really there ; when, nevertheless, 
they are nothing but illusions. Such occurrences take place 
with those who indulge much in phantasies, and are in in- 
firmity of mind and hence are rendered credulous. Such are 
visionaries. Enthusiastic spirits are of a similar nature: but 
these have visions about matters of faith, by which they are 
so firmly persuaded, and persuade others, that they will 
swear what is false to be true, and what is fallacious to be 
real. Concerning this kind of spirits many things might be 
here related from -experience ; but, by the divine mercy of 
the Lord, we shall speak specially concerning them. They 
contracted that nature from the persuasions and principles of 
the false, when they lived in the world. Evil spirits in the 
other life are scarce anything but lusts and phantasies, hav- 
ing acquired to themselves no other life. Their phantasies 



66 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

are such, that they perceive no. other than that the thing is as 
they fancy. The phantasies of men cannot be compared 
with theirs, for spirits are in a more excellent state even as to 
such things. Such phantasies are perpetual with the infer- 
nals ; and thereby they miserably torment one another. By 
genuine visions are meant visions, or sights, of those objects 
which really exist hi the other life, and which are nothing but 
real things, which may be seen by the eyes of the spirit, but 
not by the eyes of the body, and which appear to man when 
his interior sight is opened by the Lord. This mterior sight 
is that of his spirit ; into which, also, he comes, when, being 
separated from the body, he passes into the other life : for 
man is a spirit clothed with body.. Such were the visions of 
the prophets. When this sight is opened, then the things 
which exist amongst spirits are seen in a clearer light than that 
of mid- day in this world, and not only are representatives 
seen, but also the spirits themselves, accompanied with a 
perception who they are, and likewise of what quality they 
are, where they are, whence they come, and whither they 
go, of what affection, of what persuasion, yea, of what faith 
they are, all confirmed by living discourse altogether like that 
of men, and this without any fallacy." — A. C. 1966-1970. 

" There was a certain person with whom I was acquainted 
in the life of the body, but not as to the mind [animus] and 
interior affections : he occasionally conversed with me in the 
other life, but a little at a distance ; in general he manifested 
himself by pleasant representatives, for he could present 
things which delighted, as colors of every kind, and beautiful 
colored forms, and could introduce infants beautifully deco- 
rated as angels, and very many like things which were plea- 
sant and delightful."— A. C. 4412. 

" The punishment of the veil is a very common one, and is 
in this manner. The offender seems to himself, in conse- 
quence of the phantasies whereby he is impressed, to be 
under a veil, stretched out to a great distance : it is as it were 
a cohering cloud, which is condensed according to the cul- 
prit's phantasy : under this cloud the sufferers run here and 
there, with a most eager desire to make their escape, and 
with different velocities, until they are wearied out; this 
generally continues for the space of an hour, more or less, 
and is attended with divers degrees of to*rture according to 
the degree of their desire to extricate themselves. The pun- 
ishment of the veil is inflicted on those who, although they 
see the truth, yet are rendered by self-love unwilling to ac- 
knowledge it, and are angry to think that it is truth. Some 
spirits have such anxiety and terror under the veil, that they 



PHANTASY. 67 

despair of ever being set at liberty, as I was informed by one 
who had been led out. 

" There is also another kind of veil, wherein the offender is 
wrapped up as in a sheet, so that he seems to himself to be 
bound as to his hands, feet, and body, and at the same time 
is impressed with a strong desire to extricate himself: this he 
imagines may be easily effected, inasmuch as he is only 
wrapped up with a single fold ; but when he attempts to 
undo it, the more he unfolds of it, the longer it grows ; until 
he is driven at last to despair." — A. C. 963-964. 

" There were with me some who were without subjects, 
but yet attempted to flow in by the foulest ideas. Wherefore 
they made their ideas visible with me, which often happens 
in the other life, viz. that ideas should be set forth as visible, 
or that they should be able, by phantasies, to present any- 
thing as visible in another place, when yet it is really nothing 
else than a phantasy. Accordingly a certain female spirit pre- 
sented before me in idea an infant, which it was given to per- 
ceive was only the phantasy of something thus made visi- 
ble."— S. D. 3869. 

" It is wonderful that the phantasies of evil spirits should ap- 
pear as altogether real, as for instance that they should deem 
themselves clothed with garments, with hair, and the like ; 
nay, when these garments were spoken of, they touched 
them, saw them, and said they were real, and yet they can 
be taken away by phantasies, and others substituted in their 
place. They are even made to believe, that instead of two 
arms they have many, and say that such is the fact. The 
illusions of the kind which I have seen are innumerable, and 
when it has been given me to speak with them, and to say 
that they were phantasies, they still thought them real." — 
S. D. 4339. 

"I have seen and been instructed as to the state of the 
hells in general. Phantasies are what rule them, and they 
appear real to the life, because those who are there are in 
phantasies, and have no other life than that of phantasies. 
* * * Their genera and species are very numerous, agreeing 
with the number of the hells, and (attended) with living pain, 
torment, and perception. I have seen how they mutually 
torment each other in the hells by means of phantasies. One 
would bind another so tightly with cords, that the spirit knew 
no otherwise that he was actually bound as to his hands 
and feet, and was thus cast whenever the other saw fit. 
They would then turn him into a wild animal, a bear or some- 
thing else, and bind him by the neck and head, and even by 



68 MESMEH, AND SWEDENBORG. 

the teeth, and draw him, if he lagged, and that with sensible 
pain. I have seen also that they "would project a serpent, 
and he would Wound them in the feet, whence the blood 
would be seen flowing over the place on which they stood. 
By these and such like phantasies one tortures another, and 
he who inflicts it is sent into similar tortures. The genera 
and species of phantasies are innumerable, according to their 
hells."— & D. 4381. 

" Evil and infernal spirits "who are let loose to serve men, 
thus who are in the world of spirits, know how to lead all 
those who think (solely) of themselves, and they do lead 
them whithersoever they will, even to whatever is infernal, 
in so far as they can turn their thoughts in upon themselves; 
but those who do not regard themselves, but others whom 
they deem as worthy as themselves, and particularly who 
look to the Lord supremely, they cannot move. Evil and 
infernal spirits know how, by various acts, to turn the 
thoughts of another spirit upon himself, and thus to lead him 
wherever they wish, some by magical art, some by phan- 
tastic art, some by communication of thoughts, and "then by 
influx from themselves." — S. D. 5463. 

" These things may be further illustrated by what takes 
place amongst spirits ; for they present to view palaces 
almost like those in the heavens, also groves and rural ob- 
jects nearly resembling those presented by the Lord amongst 
good spirits ; they adorn themselves with shining garments, 
yea, the syrens also induce a beauty almost angelical ; but all 
these things are the effect of art by phantasies." — A. C. 10,286. 

From this it is obvious that the same phantastic phenomena 
occur in the other life, which are here witnessed in the Mes- 
meric condition. The creations of one mind are transferred to 
another, and nothing is more obvious than that the state in- 
duced by the process of Magnetization, is one which ap- 
proximates closely to that of a disembodied spirit. It is this 
fact which brings it into such intimate relation to the devel- 
opments of Swedenborg. The grand objection hitherto made 
to his claims, has been founded on the lack of competent 
evidence as to the truth of his revelations. " What have we," 
it has been said* " but his simple assertion in proof that he 
saw and heard the wonderful things of heaven and hell?" 
The evidence of this has indeed approved itself as sound and 
satisfactory to multitudes of minds, apart from any external 



PHANTASY. 69 

testimony. They have been fully convinced that his mar- 
vellous relations carried their own evidence with them to 
every one who could be persuaded to a candid and careful 
examination of his disclosures as a whole. But the Divine 
Providence is now accumulating an entirely new mass of tes- 
timony. The indubitable facts of Mesmerism are affording 
to the very senses of man a demonstration which cannot 
be resisted, that Swedenborg has told the truth of the other life. 
The denial of his claims has now to encounter something 
more than the intrinsic character of his statements. It must 
meet, and, in order to be successful, must overcome, the 
strong array of facts planted around it by the progress of Mes- 
meric discovery. These facts are intuitively seen to connect 
themselves indissolubly with the whole tissue of Sweden- 
borg's relations, as to the laws and phenomena of the spiritual 
world. The result is inevitable. If Mesmerism is true, Swe- 
denborg is true. Can the farther inference be resisted, that if 
Swedenborg is true, he is a divinely commissioned messen- 
ger from heaven to man ? It avails not to say in reply that 
his revelations may have been merely Mesmeric, and conse- 
quently are no more authoritative than those elicited from 
persons in ordinary Magnetic extase. We have already shown 
that his state differed from that of ordinary Mesmeric sub- 
jects — that while there are certain points of resemblance and 
relation between them, his psychological condition was dis- 
tinguished by peculiarities which elevated it immeasurably 
above theirs. The repetition of our proofs on this head will 
be unnecessary here. We content ourselves with the simple 
affirmation, that it is impossible to deny, on intelligent grounds, 
that the higher Mesmeric phenomena fall into the same cate- 
gory with the relations of the Swedish seer, and that the 
truth of the former establishes that of the latter. The con- 
verse, however, we do not admit as holding good — viz. that 
if Mesmerism be false, Swedenborg is false. The evidence 
of his truth we contend to be irrefutable, when judged upon 
its own grouii'ds, and independent of all relation to other facts 
and inferences, although capable of being vastly corroborated 

by them. 

4# 



70 MESMER AJ3D SWEBENBORG, 

CHAPTER IV. 

SPHERES. 

It is well known to those who are conversant with the facts 
of the Mesmeric state, that one of the most common manifes- 
tations is a peculiar and painful sensitiveness to the proximity, 
and especially to the touch, of any other person than* the 
Mesmerizer, or of one with whom the subject is put in rap- 
port or communication. This is pre-eminently the case with 
fresh subjects. They almost universally affirm, that it is im- 
possible to describe the disagreeableness of the sensation pro- 
duced by the contact or the near approach even of their 
dearest friends and relatives, when the requisite communica- 
tion has not been established ; and with some it is ajmost im- 
possible to establish it at all.* I was once upon the point of 

* The following is a translation from the German of Werner. 

61 After some time my mother entered the chamber, and her 
(the patient's) whole body began to tremble, as had happened 
before when any brother came in. I then asked her, ' Can you 
not do something to prevent this trepidation upon the entrance of 
other persons into the room? She answered, 6 Nothing in this 
case can be done ; I cannot prevent it. You know so little; it is 
the consequence of my excitable condition. It always causes me 
pain when other persons besides yourself approach me, be they 
who they may. But especially painful and afflictive to me are 
those whose influence upon my nerves does not correspond with 
yours ; spasms then immediately ensue. The principle which 
animates my nerves seems not to be in harmony with that which 
animates theirs. What this is I cannot say, still less can I define 
the nature of the difference, but this I have from my Albert (her 
guardian spirit) to whom I refer it, that the source of it is to be 
traced both to the body and the spirit. The general state of health 
and the mode of life has an influence also, and so has the disposi- 
tion and principles.' ' But how can you experience pain from 
others, when they only approach you at a distance V ' Every 
man, when awake and in good health, has an atmosphere which 
possesses a certain extension. That of magnetized persons is 
wider than that of the healthy. When they both come in con- 
tact and mingle, there arises to me, because I am much more 
susceptible in my present condition, a distressing sensation, to 
which I can give no name ; the healthy know nothing of it. With 
you, however, it is the reverse ; I am comfortable in your proxim- 
ity, because the animating principle of our nerves is in harmony." * 
— Die Schutzgeister (Guardian Angels) of H. Werner, p. 10. 



SPHERES. 71 

being thus put in rapport with a subject, and moved my seat 
near her for the purpose, when she requested me to wait 
awhile till she became a little habituated to my sphere, say- 
ing at the same time that the sphere of some persons was so 
uncongenial, repugnant, and distressing to her, as to throw 
her into convulsions. fThis, however, was a degree of sensi- 
bility, arising from a very exquisite nervous temperament, 
which is but seldom found to exist| But nothing is more 
usual than to witness a striking effect of a nervous kind indi- 
cated by shrinkings and tremors which the Mesmerisee is 
unable to control, however much he may try. 

Now there can be no doubt whatever that this effect is 
owing to the influence of spheres. Every one is surrounded 
by an invisible aura or atmosphere, which is constantly ex- 
haling from his person and spreading to some distance on 
every side, and bearing to him somewhat the same relation 
that the aerial atmosphere does to the earth. The first effect 
of the Magnetic condition is to produce a blending or conge- 
nial inter-relation of the respective spheres of the operator 
and the subject, and the more perfect is the moral affinity of 
the parties, the more complete is the amalgamation in this 
respect; for the sphere is not merely the efflux of the corpo- 
real system, but it emanates also from the interior spirit, the 
seat of sentiments and intellectual sympathies. A very de- 
cided opposition or antipathy of internal spheres is extremely 
unfavorable to the Mesmeric influence, and often avails to 
counteract it altogether. 

It is unnecessary, however, for one to be brought into the 
Magnetic state in order to be assured of the existence and 
operation of internal spheres. It is a matter of waking as 
well as of sleeping experience. We perceive it in the instinc- 
tive likes and dislikes by which we are drawn to some per- 
sons and repelled from others, even when the judgment does 
not recognise a particular cause for either.* It is the going 



* It is on the same principle that the spheres of certain animals 
are so unendurably repugnant to persons of a particular tempera- 
ment. I once knew a clergyman who was thrown into convulsions 
by a cat's leaping upon his bed, and his idiosyncrasy in this re- 



72 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

forth of the inner man — of the inner life — which produces- 
the effect. Of the effect itself every one is conscious, though 
he may know nothing about the philosophy of it. This effect, 
it will be observed, is produced in the present life, and even 
through the interposing medium of the gross fleshly body. 
But suppose the body to be laid aside and the obstacles 
thence arising to be done away, is it not reasonable to believe 
that this emanating sphere will then manifest itself in a still 
more signal manner ?* Now in the magnetic sleep the body, 
though not laid aside,, is comparatively in abeyance, and of- 
fers less obstruction than usual to the free operations of the 
soul, hence the more obvious the attraction and repulsion of 
spheres in that state. The spirit is developed in proportion 



spect was so well known among his people, that wherever he 
made a call the first preliminary was to remove all the cats to 
private quarters till he had retired. 

* " Sympathies and antipathies are nothing else than exhalations 
of affections, from minds which affect one another, according to 
similitudes and excite aversion according to dissimilitudes. These, 
although they are innumerable, and are not sensibly perceived by 
any sense of the body, are yet perceived by the sense of the soul as 
one ; and according to them all conjunctions and consociations in 
the spiritual world are made.' 5 — T. C. R. 365. 

" When those who in the natural world have been adulterers 
from a confirmed principle perceive a sphere of conjugial love 
flowing down from heaven, they instantly either flee away into 
caverns and hide themselves, or, if they persist obstinately in con- 
trariety to it, they grow angry with rage, and become like furies. 
The reason why they are so affected is, because all things of the 
affections, whether delightful or undelightful, are perceived in 
that world, and in some cases as clearly as an odor is perceived 
by the sense of smelling; for the inhabitants of that world have 
not a material body which absorbs such things" — C. L. 425. 

"They were unwilling to think at all about their body, or even 
about anything corporeal and material, contrary to the spirits 
from our earth; hence it was that they were not willing to ap- 
proach, for spirits consociate and dissociate according to affections 
and the thoughts thence derived; nevertheless after the removal 
of several spirits from our earth, they came nearer and discoursed 
with me. But on this occasion there was felt an anxiety arising 
from the collision of spheres : for spiritual spheres encompass all 
spirits and societies of spirits, flowing forth from the life of the af- 
fections and of the thoughts thence derived : wherefore if the af- 
fections be contrary, collision takes place, whence comes anxiety." 
—.4. C. 10,312. 



SPHERES. 73 

as the body is quiescent ; it is enabled therefore to assert it- 
self more fully under its appropriate laws as a spirit 

Now on the supposition that Swedenborg has made a true 
discovery of the state of spirits after death, should we not be 
authorized to expect that this fact of the existence and opera- 
tion of spheres would be laid open to us ? Has he done it ? 
Does he throw any light upon this part of the wonderful 
economy of our being ? This question receives an instanta- 
neous answer upon the most casual opening of any one of 
his volumes. No subject holds a more prominent place in 
his revealed psychology than the doctrine of spheres, nor is 
any part of the system more remarkable. The ensuing ex- 
tracts will be full of meaning to any who has made himself 
conversant with the phenomena of the Mesmeric state. 

In speaking of the spiritual sun as an emanation from the 
Lord he says : 

"It is called a proceeding, because that sun was produced 
from divine love and from divine wisdom, which in them- 
selves are substance and form, and by it the divine proceeds. 
But because human reason is such, that it does not acqui- 
esce, unless it sees a thing from its cause, thus unless it also 
perceives how, here how the sun of the spiritual world, 
which is not the Lord, but a proceeding from Him, was pro- 
duced; therefore, concerning this also something shall be 
said. On this subject I have spoken much with the angels, 
who said, that they perceive this clearly in their spiritual 
light, but that they can hardly set it before man in his natu- 
ral light, because there is such a difference between the two 
lights, and the thoughts thence. They said, however, that 
this is similar to the sphere of affections, and of thoughts 
thence, which encompasses every angel, whereby his pre- 
sence is manifested to those who are near and remote : and 
that this encompassing sphere is not the angel himself, but 
that it is from all and everything of his body, from which 
substances continually emanate, as a stream, and the things 
that emanate surround him, and that these substances being 
contiguous to his body, and continually actuated by the two 
fountains of the motion of his life, the heart and the lungs, 
excite the atmospheres into their activities, and thereby pro- 
duce a perception as of his presence with others ; and thus 
that there is not another sphere of affections, and of thoughts 
thence, although it is so called, which goes forth and is con- 
tinued, because the affections are the mere states of the forms 



74 MESMEft AND SWEDENBORG. 

of the mind in him. They said, moreover, that there is such 
a sphere around every angel, because it is around the Lord, 
and that that sphere around the Lord is in like manner from 
Him, and that that sphere is their sun, or the sun of the spi- 
ritual world 

" It has often been given to perceive that there is such 
a sphere around an angel and a spirit, and also a common 
sphere around many in society ; and it has also been given 
to see it under various appearances ; in heaven sometimes 
under the appearance of thin flame, in hell under the appear- 
ance of a thick fire ; and sometimes in heaven under the ap- 
pearance of a thin and bright cloud, and in hell under the ap- 
pearance of a thick and black cloud ; and it has also been 
given to perceive those spheres under various species of 
odors and stenches. — From which I was confirmed, that 
there is diffused around every one in heaven, and every one 
in hell, a sphere consisting of substances resolved and sepa- 
rated from their bodies. 

" It was also perceived, that a sphere diffuses itself, 
not only from angels and spirits, but also from all and each 
of the things which appear in that world, as from the trees 
and from their fruits there, from shrubs and from their flow- 
ers, from herbs and from grasses, yea, from earths and from 
everything of them ; from which it was evident, that this is 
universal as well in things living as dead, that everything 
is surrounded by something similar to that which is within 
hi it, and that this is continually exhaled from it. That it is 
similar in the natural world, is known from the experience 
of many of the learned ; as that a continual stream of effluvia 
flows forth from a man, also from every animal, and likewise 
from trees, fruits, shrubs, flowers, yea, from metals and 
stones. This the natural world derives from the spiritual 
world, and the spiritual world from the Divine." — D. L. fy 
D. W. 291-293. 

" There flows forth, yea, overflows, from every man a spi- 
ritual sphere, derived from the affections of his love, which 
encompasses him, and infuses itself into the natural sphere 
derived from the body, so that the two spheres are conjoined. 
That a natural sphere is continually flowing forth, not only 
from man, but also from beasts, yea, from trees, fruits, flowers, 
and also from metals, is a thing generally known; the case 
is the same in the spiritual world ; but the spheres flowing 
forth from subjects in that world are spiritual, and those 
which emane from spirits and angels are altogether spiritual, 
because there appertain thereto affections of love, and thence 
perceptions and interior thoughts ; all of sympathy and anti- 



SPHERES. 75 

pathy hath hence its rise, and likewise all conjunction and 
disjunction, and according thereto presence and absence in 
the spiritual world, for what is homogenous or concordant 
causes conjunction and presence, and what is heterogenous 
and discordant causes disjunction and absence, wherefore 
those spheres cause distances in that world. What those 
spiritual spheres operate in the natural world, is also known 
to some. The inclination of conjugial partners one towards 
the other is from no other origin than this ; such partners 
are united by unanimous and concordant spheres, and dis- 
united by adverse and discordant spheres; for concordant 
spheres are delightful and grateful, whereas discordant 
spheres are undelightful and ungrateful. I have been in- 
formed by the angels, who are in a clear perception of those 
spheres, that there is not any part within in man, nor any 
without, which doth not renew itself, and "that this renewal 
is effected by solutions and reparations, and that hence is the 
sphere which continually issues forth." — C. L. 171. 

" The sphere of a spirit is, as it w^ere, his image extended 
without him, and is indeed the image of all things appertain- 
ing to him. But what is exhibited visibly or perceptibly in 
the world of spirits, is only a something general : its quality, 
however, as to its particular, is discerned in heaven ; but its 
quality as to its particulars of particulars, no one knows but 
the Lord alone."— A. C. 1505. 

" Every spirit, and still more every society of spirits, has 
its own sphere proceeding from the principles and persua- 
sions imbibed, which is a sphere of those principles and per- 
suasions. Evil genii have a sphere of lusts. The sphere of 
principles and persuasions is such, that, when it acts upon 
another, it causes truths to appear like falses, and calls forth 
all sorts of confirmatory arguments, so as to induce the belief 
that things false are true, and that things evil are good. 
Hence it may appear, how easily man may be confirmed in 
falses and evils, unless he believe the truths which are from 
the Lord. Such spheres have a greater density according to 
the nature of the falses. These spheres can in no respect 
accord with the spheres of spirits who are in truths ; if they 
approximate each other, there arises a conflict ; if, by per- 
mission, the sphere of the false prevails, the good come into 
temptation, and into anxiety. There was perceived also a 
sphere of incredulity, which is of such a nature, that the spi- 
rits from whom it proceeds believe nothing which is told 
them, and scarcely what is exhibited to their view." — A. C. 
1510. 



76 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

" The spheres of charity and faith, when perceived as 
odors, are most delightful ; the odors are sweet and pleasant, 
like those of flowers, lilies, and species of divers kinds, with 
an indefinite variety. Moreover, the sjjheres of the angels 
are sometimes rendered visible like atmospheres, or aurae, 
which are of such beauty, pleasantness, and variety, as to 
admit of no description." — A. C. 1519. 

" Man does not know, that according to the life of his af- 
fections, a certain spiritual sphere encompasses him, which 
sphere is more perceptible to the angels, than a sphere of 
odor is to the most exquisite sense hi the world. If his life 
has been in externals alone, namely, in pleasures derived 
from hatreds against his neighbor, from revenges and from 
cruelty thence, from adulteries, from self-exaltation, and 
thence contempt of others, from clandestine rapines, from 
avarice, from deceits, from luxury, and the like, the spiritual 
sphere which encompasses him is as foul and offensive, as 
is in the world the sphere of odor from dead bodies, from 
dunghills, from stinking filth, and the like. The man, who 
had led such a life, carries with him this sphere after death; 
and because he is wholly and entirely in that sphere, he can- 
not be anywhere but in hell, where such spheres are. 
But they who are in internal things, namely, who have had 
delight in benevolence and charity towards the neighbor, and 
especially who have had blessedness in love to the Lord, 
are encompassed with a grateful and pleasant sphere, which 
is essentially heavenly, on which account they are in hea- 
ven. The spheres which are perceived in the other life, all 
arise from the loves and affections thence, in which they had 
been, consequently from the life, for the loves and affections 
thence make the life itself. 5 '— A C. 4464. 

" The spiritual sphere appertaining to man or to a spirit is 
the exhalation flowing forth from the life of his loves, from 
which it is known at a distance what is his quality ; accord- 
ing to spheres all are conjoined in the other life, even socie- 
ties among themselves ; and are also dissociated, for oppo- 
site spheres are in collision, and mutually repel each other ; 
hence the spheres of the loves of evil are all in hell, and the 
spheres of the loves of good are all in heaven, that is, they 
who are in those spheres." — A. C. 6206. 

" How the case herein is, is evident from those things which 
manifest themselves in the other life ; every spirit, and espe- 
cially every society, have about them the sphere of their faith 
and their life, which sphere is a spiritual sphere ; hereby a 



SPHERES. 77 

spirit is distinguished, and especially a society", as to their 
quality, for it is perceived by those who are in perception, 
sometimes at a considerable distance ; and this although they 
are in concealment, and neither communicate by thought nor 
by speech : this spiritual sphere may be compared to the 
material sphere which encompasses the head of a man in the 
world, which sphere is a sphere of effluvias exuding from him, 
and is sensibly smelt by sagacious beasts. From what has 
been said concerning the spiritual sphere, or the sphere of 
faith and life, which exhales from every spirit, and especial- 
ly from a society of spirits, it may further be manifest, that 
there is nothing at all concealed, but everything is in mani- 
festation, whatsoever man in the world has thought, has 
spoken and done, for these are the things which constitute 
that sphere : such a sphere also exudes from the spirit of a 
man whilst he is in the body in the world ; hence also it is 
known what this quality is : let it not therefore be believed, 
that what things a man thinks in secret, and what things he 
acts in secret, are secret, for they are as manifest in heaven, 
as the things which appear in mid-day light, according to 
the Lord's words in Luke, ' There is nothing concealed,which 
shall not be revealed, or hidden, which shall not be known ; 
therefore whatsoever things ye have said in darkness, shall 
be heard in light, and what ye have spoken into the ear in 
closets, shall be preached upon the tops of houses, 5 xii. 2, 3." 
—A. C. 7454. 

" The reason why to touch denotes communication, trans- 
lation, and reception is, because the interiors of man put 
themselves forth by external things, especially by the touch, 
and thereby communicate themselves with another, and 
transfer themselves to another, and so far as the will is in 
further agreement, and makes one, they are received ; whe- 
ther we speak of the will or the love, it is the same thing, for 
what is of the love of man, this also is of his will. Hence 
also it follows that the interiors of man, which are of his love 
and of the thought thence derived, put themselves forth by 
the touch, and thus communicate themselves with another, 
and transfer themselves into another ; and so far as another 
loves the person or the things which the person speaks or 
acts, so far they are received. This especially manifests it- 
self in the other life, for all in that life act from the heart, that 
is, from the will or love, and it is not allowed to act from 
gestures separate from thence, nor to speak from the mouth 
according to pretence, that is, separately from the thought of 
the heart ; it is there evident how the interiors communicate 
themselves with another, and transfer themselves into ano- 



78 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

ther by the touch ; and how another receives them according 
to his love. The will or love of every one constitutes the 
whole man there, and the sphere of the life thence flows 
forth from him as an exhalation or vapor, and encompasses 
him, and makes as it were himself around him ; resembling 
in a great measure the effluvia encompassing vegetables in 
the world, which is also made sensible at a distance by 
odors ; also that encompassing beasts, of which a sagacious 
dog is exquisitely sensible ; such an effluvium also diffuses 
itself from every man, as is moreover known from much ex- 
perience. When, however, man lays aside the body, and 
becomes a spirit or an angel, then the effluvium or expira- 
tory principle is not material, as in the world, but is spiritual, 
flowing forth from his love ; this then forms a sphere around 
him, which causes his quality to be perceived at a distance 
by others. Now as this sphere communicates with another, 
and is there transferred into him, and is received by another 
according to his love, hence many wonderful things there 
exist which are unknown to man in the world: as 1st, That 
all presence is according to similitudes of loves, and all ab- 
sence according to their dissimilitudes,. 2dly, That all are 
consociated according to loves ; those who are in love to the 
Lord from the Lord, consociate in the inmost heaven ; those 
who are in love towards the neighbor from the Lord, conso- 
ciate in the middle heaven; those who are in the obedience 
of faith, that is, who do the truth for the sake of the truth, 
consociate in the ultimate heaven; but those who are in the 
love of self and of the world, that is, who do what they do 
for the sake of themselves and the world as ends, consociate 
in hell. When an angel of heaven determinates his sight to 
others, in such case his interiors are communicated and trans- 
ferred into them, according to the quantity and quality of his 
love ; and are received by them according to the quality and 
quantity of their love ; wherefore if by an angel of heaven 
the sight be determined to the good, the effect is gladness and 
joy ; but if to the evil, the effect is grief and torment. The 
reason, moreover, why by the touch of the hand is also sig- 
nified communication, translation, and reception, is because 
the active principle of the whole body is brought together 
into the arms and into the hands, and interior things are ex- 
pressed in the Word by exterior. Hence it is that by the 
arms, by the hands, and especially by the right hand, is sig- 
nified power."— A. C. 10,130. 

" In heaven there are spheres of love and of faith, which 
are manifestly perceived : spheres are of such a nature, that 



SPHERES. 79 

when a good spirit or angel, or a society of good spirits or 
angels, approaches, it is then instantly perceived, as often as 
it seems good unto the Lord, what is the quality of the spirit, 
angel, or society, in regard to love and faith ; and this at a 
distance, but more particularly as they approach nearer: 
this is incredible, but still it is most true : such is the com- 
munication which prevails in another life, and such the per- 
ception; wherefore, when it seems good unto the Lord, there 
is no need of much examination as to the quality of a soul, 
or spirit, for it may be known at the first approach. To these 
spheres the spheres of odors in the world correspond ; that 
they correspond, may appear from this, that the spheres of 
love and faith, whenever it seems good unto the Lord, are 
manifestly changed in the world of spirits into spheres of 
delightful and sweet odors, and are sensibly perceived." — A. 
C. 925 s 

" That the truth or the false which are derived from man's 
loves, encompass him and also flow forth from him, may 
appear from this consideration, that all things which are in 
the world, as well animate as inanimate, pour forth from 
themselves a sphere, which is sometimes perceivable to the 
senses at a considerable distance, as from animals in the 
woods, which dogs exquisitely smell out, and pursue by the 
scent from step to step ; likewise from vegetables in gardens 
and forests, which emit an odoriferous sphere in every direc- 
tion ; in like manner from the ground and its various mine- 
rals ; but these exhalations are natural exhalations. Similar 
is the case in the spiritual world, where from every spirit and 
angel flows forth a sphere of his love, and of its derivative 
truth or false, and this in every direction; hence it is that all 
spirits may be known as to their quality, from the spiritual 
sphere alone which exudes from them, and that according to 
those spheres they have conjunction with societies which 
are in similar love, and thence in a similar truth or false. 
They who are in the love of good and thence of truth, are 
conjoined with the societies of heaven, and they who are in 
the love of evil and thence of the false, are conjoined with 
the societies of hell. I can assert that there is not even a 
single thought appertaining to a spirit, and also to a man, 
which does not communicate by that sphere with some 
society : that this is the case, has not hitherto been known to 
man, but it has been made evident to me from a thousand 
instances in the spiritual world, wherefore also when spirits 
are explored as to their quality, it is traced out whither their 
thoughts extend themselves, whence it is known with what 
societies they are conjoined, and thus their quality is ascer- 



80 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

tained, and that the evil are conjoined with societies of hell, 
and the good with societies of heaven ?" — A. E. 889. 

This doctrine of spheres as pertaining to spirits in the other 
world, is exceedingly important and wonderful, as' may be 
seen from Swedenborg's development of it in the Arc. Celes. 
1504-1520. He remarks, it will be seen, that the interiors of 
man are in a certain unknown activity, by means of which 
the character of a spirit is perceivable, and that the sphere of 
such activity not only extends itself to a considerable dis- 
tance around him, but is occasionally made manifest by 
beautiful variations of light, and in some cases by being con- 
verted into a peculiar odor. This odor, though of the most 
exquisite fragrance hi the case of good spirits, is so offensive 
to the evil that the very perception of it fills them with un- 
utterable distress and anguish. This constitutes one among 
other reasons why the wicked cannot dwell in heaven. 
They cannot abide the celestial aura. The inhaling the least 
portion of it puts them into a frenzy of torment, while every 
kind of foul and fetid odor is to them an aroma of delight.* 
But the nature of spheres becomes peculiarly interesting from 
the mental phenomena connected with them.f The sphere 

* " Good cannot be approached by evils, for evils cannot sustain 
in any measure the sphere of good. When evils, that is, they 
who are in evils, or they who are from hell, come into that sphere, 
which sphere is the sphere of heaven, they are direfully tormented, 
and so far as they enter into that sphere, so far they are made 
sensible of infernal tortures in themselves, and become thence 
like those who lie in the agony of deaths wherefore they cast them- 
selves down instantly into hell, and dare not any longer lift up 
their heads.' 5 — A. C. 10,187. 

f " Was the discernment of spirits mentioned in the apostolic 
age, anything more than the Influence of Spheres ? This was called 
a miraculous gift, but the vulgar definition of miracles, that ' they 
are events contrary to the common course of nature,' is inconsist- 
ent with reason, and a disgrace to religion. God cannot contradict 
himself either in his word or in his works. He is the one eternal, 
all perfect. Several things appear miraculous because we are 
ignorant ; we know not the powers of nature; we see not the im- 
mediate connection between cause and effect. When the spiritual 
degree is opened in the mind; when the outward man is reduced 
into some degree of order, then he is susceptible of new feelings, 
and capable of higher degrees of knowledge. This may rationally 



SPHERES. 81 

of a spirit, according to Swedenborg, is his image extended 
without him, and to the keen perception of another spirit, 
immediately reveals his internal quality, and, still more, indu- 
ces a recognition of his identity, if he had been before known. 
A parallel to this we see again in the facts of Mesmerism. 
A subject in that state, with his eyes hermetically sealed, and 
it may be, bandaged, will indicate by name a person of his 
acquaintance who unexpectedly enters the room ; and this is 
often referred to a preternatural power of vision with which 
he is then endowed. Without denying the fact of such vision, 
we presume the truth to be, that they generally tell the per- 
son by his sphere. Sight is superseded by sensation, unless 
indeed this perception of spheres is their vision. I once in- 

aecount for the wonderful presentiments which people of extraor- 
dinary piety have had of approaching calamities, the sickness or 
death of relations and friends, &c. Their spirits, which are their 
real selves, were as much influenced by the spheres of others as if 
they had been bodily present, for spirits are not confined to time 
or place ; although in general this influence is by far the strongest, 
and in some cases not easily to be overcome, when the person is 
actually present : hence that visible uneasiness which is felt in the 
company of certain persons ; the breast as it were contracts, the 
power of conversation is suspended, and you do not recover your 
ease and spirits until they are removed. Some men of loose and 
profligate lives have been uncommonly deranged and distressed 
when in the company of persons of eminent piety : for a time they 
are not themselves. The professed libertine, who has forgot to 
blush, has been discomposed and confounded at the simplicity and 
innocence of a young girl. Such are the powers of virtue ; and 
such is the respect which vice must involuntary pay to it. Virtue, 
meekness, forbearance, and humanity appear to be weak., yet 
are they founded on eternal strength ; whereas profligacy and vice 
vaunt of their strength, when they are only forms of weakness and 
death. Every principle of truth applies to the good of life. The 
doctrine here laid down is of great practical import. "We see a 
deep ground for being peculiarly careful ©f the company we keep; 
when we associate with them by choice and unreserve, we imme- 
diately expose ourselves to the influence of their sphere, which 
may corrupt not only good manners, but good principles. We 
are wonderfully combined together ; therefore we cannot be too 
watchful over ourselves, or too circumspect of our companions. 
Man is no independent being; he experiences a healthful sympa- 
thy or a morbid contagion from those who surround him; perhaps 
he is alway rendered better or worse by every company in which 
he is; and our companions in this world prepare us for our com- 
panions in the next."' — New Jerusalem Mag. 1790 p. 193. 



82 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

terrogated a Mesmeric subject on this point, how she dis- 
criminated different individuals when blindfolded — whether 
she actually saw them. "No," she replied, "I do not see 
them, I feel them." They are revealed by their sphere. In 
accordance with this, Swedenborg remarks, that, " When 
any spirit is coming towards others, although he is yet at a 
distance, and not manifest to the sight, his presence is per- 
ceived, as often as the Lord grants, from a certain spiritual 
sphere."* 

As these spheres are the grand media of conjunction be- 
tween spirits, being the emanations of their interior affections, 
we see in them the ground of that peculiar attachment which, 
for the time being, is evinced by the Mesmerised towards his 
Mesmerisee, and which undoubtedly tends to fix itself as a 
permanent sentiment, except as circumstances and higher 
promptings may exercise their due control over the emotions. f 
The influence exerted, however, in this manner, doubtless 

* This may perhaps afford a solution of the circumstance of 
which nearly every one has been at some time conscious, viz. that 
when suddenly led to think of an absent person who has not for 
a long time been in his thoughts, he as suddenly meets him in the 
street or elsewhere. May not this be owing to the sphere which 
is sent before him 1 

f It is proper, however, to say in this connexion that it is no 
other than the purest form of this tender sentiment which is in 
these circumstances awakened. "The attraction towards the 
mesmeriser testified by the patient is of a nature totally distinct 
from the prompting of passion. If compared to any love, it must 
be likened to self-love; for it seems to result from the identification 
of the vital and nervous system of the two parties." * * * "When 
we consider these and other proofs displayed by sleepwakers of 
sensitive and motive sympathy with their mesmeriser ; when we 
reflect that they are actually heedless of injuries inflicted on them- 
selves, but tremblingly alive to all that he is made to sutler, we 
may well imagine that he stands to them in a very peculiar and 
vital relation : nor can it seem wonderful that, when severed from 
him, that they should acknowledge a schism in their being, and 
seem out of all unity with themselves." * * * " Nothing can be 
more evident than that it is an instinct, not a passion : the springs 
of life are touched, and the powerful inpulse of self-preservation 
is set in piety- So, also, the repulsion from all others than the 
mesmeriser is but a measure of the attractive force which draws 
the patient there, where he exists even more than in himself." — 
Townshend. 



SPHERES. 83 

throws a strong light upon the operation of love and the na- 
ture of the unions which it prompts in the other life. It 
would appear that when the requisite moral affinity exists, 
souls come into a sublimated magnetic communication or 
rapport with each other, which binds them far more closely 
together than the mere attraction of kindred sentiment, as we 
see its effects manifested in the present world. Congeniality 
of sphere is the celestial cement which unites together all 
spirits that are inwardly in unison.* And what is remarka- 
ble, Swedenborg informs us, that the spheres of friendship 
which are often formed in the present life between those who 
are not in deep moral affinity with each other become so 
firmly established — so inwrought into the nature — that they 
follow the parties after death, and frequently prove very de- 
trimental in their influences. The following is, in this view, 
very striking. 

" That the friendship of love is detrimental after death, may 
be evident from the state of heaven, from the state of hell, 
and from the state of the spirit of man respectively. As to 
the state of heaven ; it is distinguished into innumerable so- 
cieties, according to all the varieties of the affections of the 
love of good ; hell also is divided into societies, according to 



* " The somnambulist has no perception of anything in the visi- 
ble world, with the exception of the souls of those individuals that 
are brought into a corresponding connexion, or into rapport with 
him : through these he learns what passes in the visible world. The 
soul, after death, enters into connexion with those that bear the 
greatest affinity to its own nature : if it enter into this kind of con- 
tact with others, it feels a pain, the extent of which corresponds 
with the degree of difference. O happy they that have approach- 
ed so near to the character of the Redeemer, as to come into con- 
nexion with him, that is, attain to the felicity of beholding him ; 
they will then be in communion also with all his saints ! In this 
manner also, those friends, who much resemble each other in their 
moral character, will there abide together, in eternal connexion 
and harmonious union. From the preceding observations, we 
may therefore comprehend what will be the nature of communi- 
cation in the world to come. The somnambulist reads in the soul 
of him with whom he is placed in rapport ; there is no need of 
language for the purpose, and such also is the case after death, 
the one reads in the soul of the other." — Stilling s Pneumatology^ 
p. 63. 



84 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

all the varieties of the affections of the love of evil; and man, 
after death, who then is a spirit, according to his life in the 
world, is presently assigned to the society where his reigning 
love is : to some heavenly society, if love to God and love 
towards the neighbor had made the head of his loves ; and 
to some infernal society, if the love of self and the world had 
made the head of his loves. Presently after his entrance into 
the spiritual world (which is made by death and the rejection 
of the material body into the sepulchre), man is for some 
time being prepared for his society to which he has been as- 
signed, and the preparation is made by the rejection of the 
loves which do not agree with his principal love ; wherefore 
one is then separated from another, friends from friends, 
clients from patrons, and also parents from their children, 
and brother from brother ; and each of them is joined to his 
like, with whom he is to live a life in common with them 
and properly his own to eternity. But, at the first time of 
the preparation, they meet together and converse in a friend- 
ly manner, as in the world ; but by degrees they are sepa- 
rated, which is done insensibly. 

" But those who in the world have contracted friendships 
of love one with another, cannot, like others, be separated 
according to order, and assigned to the society correspond- 
ing to their life ; for they are inwardly, as to the spirit, tied, 
nor can they be torn asunder, because they are like branches 
ingrafted into branches ; wherefore, if one, as to his interiors, 
is in heaven, and another, as to his interiors, in hell, they co- 
here scarcely otherwise than as a sheep tied to a wolf or as 
a goose to a fox, or as a dove to a hawk ; and he whose in- 
teriors are in hell breathes his infernal influences into him 
whose interiors are in heaven ; for among the knowledges 
which are in heaven, this also is cine, that evils may be in- 
spired into the good, but not goods into the evil. The reason 
is, because every one, by birth, is in evils ; thence the interi- 
ors of the good, who thus cohere with the evil, are shut up, 
and both are thrust down into hell, where the good suffer hard 
things ; but at length, after a certain space of time, they are 
taken out, and then they first begin to be prepared for heaven. 
It has been given me to see such tyings, particularly between 
brothers and relations, and also between patrons and clients, 
and of many with flatterers, who possessed contrary affec- 
tions and diverse dispositions. 

" The case is altogether otherwise with those who love the 
good in another, that is, who love justice, judgment, sincer- 
ity, benevolence from charity, especially who love faith and 
love to the Lord; those, because they love the things which 
are within a man abstracted from those which are without 



SPHERES. 85 

him, if they do not observe the same qualities in the person 
after death, immediately break off friendship, and are asso- 
ciated by the Lord with those who are in similar good. It 
may be said that no one can explore the interiors of the 
mind of those with whom he is associated and connected ; 
but this is not necessary ; only let him be cautious of forming 
a friendship of love with every one ; external friendship, for 
the sake of various uses, is not hurtful." — T. C. R. 447-449. 

Everything relative to the subject of spheres goes to evince 
that there is a physiology of psychology — that the true basis of 
everything mental and spiritual is to be found in those sub- 
tle elements of our being which come as truly under the op- 
eration of fixed law, as do any of the processes of attraction 
and repulsion in the physical world. The interior essence of 
these elements we may be as yet unable to grasp, but that 
mental phenomena are in some mysterious manner connect- 
ed with the influences and agencies, electric and magnetic, 
which, hi some of their forms, come under the cognizance of 
the senses, is beyond a doubt. The Mesmeric state is as 
much distinguished by mental as by physical phenomena 
Yet this state is induced by physical means, that is to say, by 
manual movements or passes made in a downward direc- 
tion, and it is removed by passes made in the reverse direc- 
tion. By precisely the same process, a bar of steel is first 
magnetized and then demagnetized. These are the facts in 
the two cases. Let him, who can, resist the evidence of a 
close and indissoluble relation — of the operation of a kindred 
law — in the respective classes of phenomena. The assertion 
of this inference is not the propounding of a theory. We know 
nothing of the intrinsic nature of the principle involved in 
either case. All that we affirm is the fact of an analogy in 
the respective phenomena so striking as to warrant the con- 
clusion, that the same hidden law is at work in both. If this 
suggestion shall be taxed as savoring of the heresy of mate- 
rialism, we shall meekly allow the authors of the charge to 
glory over us in the imputation, provided they will define 
the precise boundaries that separate the domain of matter 
from that of mind. Let them say how much of the purely 
physical, and how much of the purely spiritual, there is in 

5 



86 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the process by which one person, employing at the same 
time volition and manipulation, puts another into the mag- 
netic sleep.* Is he prepared to say that his mind and his 
hands do not deal with precisely the same agent in its trans- 
mission to the subject organism ? And what will he make 
of the fact, that in transmitting this agent, which is palpably 
removed by upward passes purely mechanical, he has trans- 
ferred his own thoughts and volitions to the psychical element 
of the other party ? All this is matter of indubitable/ac?, com- 
ing within the range of every day experience, and we submit 
whether the simply charge of materialism is a sufficient reply 
to the evidence of facts which appeal as directly to the ob- 
jector's reason as to ours. 



CHAPTER V. 



MEMORY. 

A striking phasis of the Mesmeric wonders displays itself 
in the evidence afforded that the records of Memory are 
equally transferable in that state with the present train of 
thought and the arbitrary creations of fancy. The one fact is 

* " By an impulsion of my will I convey the fluid to the extrem- 
ity of my hands; by the same act of volition I impress it with a 
determinate direction, which communicates the motion of my fluid 
to that of the diseased person. Nothing prevents me from emit- 
ting it; but there may be in the individual upon whom I act, some 
obstacle which prevents the effects I intend to produce ; and then 
I experience a greater or less resistance, in the same manner as 
when I employ my strength to lift a burden that is too heavy : this 
resistance may even be invincible. The magnetical fluid is con- 
tinually escaping from us, and it forms an atmosphere round our 
bodies, which having do determinate direction, does not percep- 
tibly act upon the individuals who are about us, but it is impelled 
and guided by our will ; it moves forward with the whole of that 
force which we have imparted to it, like the luminous rays which 
issue from ignited substances. The principle which sets it in 
action exists in our souls., in the same way as that which commu- 
nicates strength to our arm, and its nature is similar." — Deleuze 
Hist. Crit. du Magnet. Vol. I. p. 93. 



MEMORY. 87 

not perhaps in itself any more marvellous than the other. 
Our present thoughts are always more or less connected with 
our past memories, and if the operations of mind in general 
may be reflected in the manner we have above described, we 
see nothing incredible in the idea that, by the law of mental 
association, the chain of reminiscences may be vividly 
awakened in the subject intellect. However it may be 
accounted for, the fact is undoubtedly so. You recal to 
mind a past event, or a remembered locality, and the clairvoy- 
ant describes it as if actually passing before his own mind. 
And it is remarkable that in many cases where you have 
failed to recollect correctly the features and circumstances of 
a particular occurrence, the descriptions thus elicited will 
agree with the truth rather than with your impressions. This 
has been frequently tested. Thus, for instance, you have in 
your mind's eye a picture representing a person sitting by a 
table with a letter in his hand, but in regard to which you 
have in some way taken up the impression that the letter lies 
on the table instead of being in the hand of the person por- 
trayed. You request the subject to describe the painting. 
He assures you the letter is in the hand. You are quite con- 
fident that he is mistaken, but he insists that he is right. On 
repairing to the room and consulting your eyes, you find, to 
your surprise, that the describer was right and that you were 
wrong. The letter is m the hand and not on the table. How 
is this to be accounted for ? So far as you were conscious, you 
conceived the letter as lying on the table, and if the conception 
of your mind was transferred to the other, why did not the 
image in both cases correspond ? The disagreement in in- 
stances like this has led many persons to suppose that the 
clairvoyant's spirit, in some mysterious way, emerged from the 
body and went actually to the place, and there examining the 
picture for itself, reported the fact as it was. Without deny- 
ing the possibility of this, I still venture to think there is an- 
other and better solution. I believe the impression was taken, 
and taken correctly, from your mind. The process, if 1 mis- 
take not, was this. When you first saw the painting, you 
s aw it as it was. It impressed itself in its true features on 



88 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the tablet of your mind. It painted itself there in its genuine 
traits as really as the colors and forms were impressed upon 
the canvass by the hand of the artist. And so, it is probable, 
the impression for some time remained. Subsequently, from 
some inexplicable cause, the error crept into your mind. in 
regard to the position of the letter. But this mere error of 
judgment did not obliterate the true underlying impression 
originally made. The senses then did their duty and made 
a veritable report. The image then daguerreotyped upon 
your mind in fact remains there still, unconsciously to your- 
self, and from this image the corresponding image in the 
mind of the mesmerisee is derived. All this is indeed won- 
derful, but the elucidations we are about to give from Swe- 
denborg will .probably evince that it is the true explanation 
of the fact. 

Previously, however, we exhibit some attested instances 
of the phenomena in question as developed in Mesmerism. 
The first is a case directly in point, in illustration of the re- 
marks just made. 

" Calixte being in the state of Extase (to be hereafter de- 
scribed) reproached himself severely for the levity of his ha- 
bitual conduct. He spoke to himself, as if addressing anoth- 
er, and discoursed with a tone and a facility which would 
have been worthy of one of the doctors of the Sorbonne. 

" Being brought back to the state of simple somnambulism, 
Calixte obeyed the orders which were mentally given him by 
his magnetizer. The latter, among many other convincing 
proofs, tacitly commanded him, on the suggestion which had 
been made to him by a third person, to go to a certain table, 
and take from it a glass full of water, and to place it upon a 
little box containing phosphorus, which had been placed, 
with several other things, upon the chimney-piece. Then 
walking very fast, the somnambulist went to take up the glass 
full of water, carried it, and placed it rapidly upon the said 
little receptacle, where it rested with perfect security, to the 
great astonishment of those present, who having afterwards 
tried to do the same thing could never find the perfect equi- 
librium. 

" M. S., a solicitor, then wished to be placed ' en rapport' 
with the somnambulist, and to induce him to explore his 
house. 



MEMORY. 89 

"'Will you see my house, and tell me the arrangement of 
the ground floor ? • 

" ' Most willingly. I am there. I enter by a door with two 
leaves into a large hall ; I see two doors on the right, two 
doors on the left, a great staircase at the bottom, and a little 
to the left; — and near to, and on the right of the staircase, a 
little door which opens into the court.' 

" ' Very well ; go up stairs to the first floor, and into the 
first room on the left. 5 

" 4 1 am there. It is your library. I see everywhere books 
and papers. I will go round the room beginning on the 
right side, and will tell you what it contains. Come then — 
follow me. Here, near to the door, is your book-case, occu- 
pying the whole side : there, are four chairs, there is the 
chimney-piece, on which stands a bronze dial: there are 
also two candles, — a book open and some papers : further 
on a writing-table : — there, opposite to the book-case, two 
windows, — between the two, there is nothing except a sofa. 
The window blinds are of blue silk — and the curtains are 
white and embroidered : there, opposite to the chimney, are 
four easy chairs. In the middle of the room is a large library 
table furnished with a covering of green cloth, ornamented 
with yellow fringe ; upon it there are only some papers, an 

inkstand, and and a box, the top of which is painted, and 

represents a landscape.' 

" ' All that you have said is perfectly correct, except in one 
particular ; that is the last which you have mentioned, there 
is no box on my usual study table.' 

" ' There is no box, do you say ? you are wrong: I am 
certain that there is a box there, I see it distinctly still. Look 
now, there, at the place where you write. Do you not see 
it ? That is astonishing, for it is of considerable size.' 

" ' I assure you, my friend, it is you who are wrong and 
not I : — but enough of this, besides I am quite satisfied with 
you, and I thank you.' 

"The somnambulist appeared much disconcerted relative 
to the box, and besides he was fatigued ; the magnetizer 
awakened him, and sent him to breathe the fresh air. 

" Then several persons inquired of M. S — , if he was quite 
sure, that there was no box upon his table ; he again affirm- 
ed that there was nothing of the kind, and added : ■ I possess 
indeed a box answering to the description which the som- 
nambulist has given of the one he affirmed to see, but it is 
invariably kept in my bedroom.' This avowal of M. S — 
that he possessed a box greatly resembling the one described 
by Calixte, induced* the magnetizer to ask M. S — to make 
himself quite sure when he returned home with regard to 



90 MESSIER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the fact in doubt. M. S — then proposed to several persons, 
and to the magnetizer himself, to accompany him home, in 
order to verify the error, which according to his belief the 
somnambulist had committed. This was agreed upon, and 
on entering the library of Iff. S — every one immediately re- 
cognized that the lucidity of Calixte had not been at fault, but 
the memory of M. S — ; fox there stood the box in the identical 
place pointed out by the magnetized. M. S — , thoroughly satis- 
fled by the sight, now recollected, that in the morning he had 
had occasion to open the box, and that his mind being pre- 
occupied with other business, he must have brought it in, 
and left it in its unwonted position." — Newnham's An. Mag. 
p. 262-265, Lond. Ed. 

The amiexed letter from Mr. Church we insert from the ap- 
pendix to Deleuze's Animal Magnetism, translated by Mr. 
Hartshorn, who has embodied a large supplementary mass 
of facts of a very interesting character, and from sources of 
the highest respectability. 

" Sir — In a conversation with you a few evenings ago, 
you asked of me a short sketch of what I had seen of the 
phenomenon called somnambulism. 

" In reply, I can only say that my observation has been 
confined principally to one case, and that of a young lady 
of this city known to you. I first saw her the latter part of 
May, and having previously heard much, but seen nothing, 
I was like most others, rather incredulous respecting the facts 
related to me by those who had witnessed them. After see- 
ing her put into an apparently sound and quiet sleep, from 
which she could not be awakened by any of the means usu- 
ally employed to rouse sleeping persons, the magnetizer pro- 
ceeded to show the influence of his will, by causing her to 
see things, which existed only in imagination. For instance, 
to drink water from an empty cup, and to eat bread, fruit, 
cake, &c. from an empty plate. She was also made to see 
and describe distinctly the number of persons in the room, 
articles of small size wrapped in many thicknessess of cloth, 
or in the pockets of the persons present. Having known of 
her being sent abroad and describing persons and things, 
and having found her descriptions to be generally correct, 
where proof was to be had, I was once induced to request 
her being sent to the island of Cuba, knowing that if she 
could describe things there of which neither she nor any one 
present, save myself, had the most remote conception, it 
would, in my mind, put the matter of l^er spiritual vision be- 
yond the possibility of a doubt. The request was complied 



MEMORY. 91 

with, by sending her along the sea coast in a southwesterly 
direction, until she came to the peninsula of Florida. She 
was then directed to go directly south over the sea until she 
came to land. Not more than half a minute elapsed before 
she announced her arrival. She was then told to seek a 
city. It was almost immediately found, and on being called 
on to describe the entrance from the sea, I "was satisfied she 
was at Matanzas. Wishing at that time to have her at Ha- 
vanna, she was directed to go west about sixty miles, until she 
came to another city, which she did. Being told to enter it 
by the harbor, and relate what she saw, on the right hand 
side going in, she described a large stone building, unfinish- 
ed, which I knew to be a new prison then building, likewise 
the city walls, mounted with cannon, the shipping and the 
harbor generally, with the forts on the opposite side of the 
entrance, Moro Castle, Castle Blanco, the light-house, &c. 
Leading questions were of course avoided. 

" She also described correctly the quay, the launches load- 
ing from an open shed, with many persons there collected, 
standing smoking, &c. ; which place is used as a kind of Ex- 
change, where the c merchants do most congregate.' 

" She was then directed to enter a large building in that vi- 
cinity, the Cathedral, and her description of it was very mi- 
nute, and so far as my memory served, was very correct. 
Being asked what kind of church it was, she replied she did 
not know, having never seen anything of the kind before. 
Observing a number of priests officiating at the altar, her at- 
tention was directed to them. On being asked their probable 
age, she said that ■ two were nearly bald, and three, although 
very young, were beginning to be so,' fully satisfying me, 
that she recognized the 'priest with the shaven crown. 3 She 
saw one bearing a bright vessel, suspended by a chain, from 
whence issued a smoke, which he swung before; and others 
engaged apparently at prayer and kneeling before the altar. 
Occasionally a lid would close over it and the smoke cease, 
when it would be handed to a boy in attendance, then taken 
back again, and so used several times during the ceremony. 
She described with exactness the organ as being very small 
for so large a building, and much out of place, which is the 
fact, being situated in an arch of the ceiling above the capi- 
tals of the columns; the floor of the altar as being beautifully 
inlaid with marble in Mosaic ; also the many and splendid 
paintings on the walls. 

" At another time she visited Matanzas, describing the ves- 
sels in the harbor with sufficient exactness for me to identify 
one in which I was interested ; the quay or landing ; the pub- 
lic square, with orange trees on the border ; and a marble 



92 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

statue in the centre ; the church at that place with the pe- 
culiar architecture and location of the town; together with 
the interior of the church, the altar, statues, ornaments, &c, 
including a miniature brig suspended from the ceiling, by 
some pious individual, who had been saved from shipwreck, 
by praying heartily to his patron saint, and thus fulfilled his 
vows by dedicating the said vessel to his or her glory. 

" I recognized by her description three ladies of my ac- 
quaintance at their residence. And her whole description, 
so far as my memory could be relied on, was strictly correct. 
I would observe, that on being first sent to Cuba, no name 
of place was given her, and nearly ten days elapsed before I 
met her again, when she asked me where she had been sent ; 
as she knew it must have been in a foreign country, the ap- 
pearance of things being so entirely different from anything 
she had before seen. 

"I close by giving you the assurance of my most implicit 
belief in what I have witnessed, only stating facts, and not at- 
tempting to account for them. 

Respectfully yours, 

FREDERICK S. CHURCH." 
[Deleuze on An. Mag. p. 147-150. 

The following extract is from a London periodical, entitled 
" The Zoist," which is mainly devoted to the interests of 
ps3^chological science in every department, and especially 
in that of Mesmerism. It will be seen to be very pertinent 
in illustration of what we have said of memory. 

" The first I heard of Alexis was Colonel Cur wood's inter- 
views with him at Paris. The Colonel at his own house one 
day read to me his notes of various interviews with Alexis, 
written the same evening or the next morning after each inter- 
view. If the Colonel was astounded and satisfied so was I : be- 
cause he is known to all the world as a man of perfect pro- 
bity, a plain and straightforward soldier and gentleman, 
without any freaks of fancy or hastiness of opinion. He had 
never accompanied his family to my house to witness my 
mesmeric experiments, and he doubted the truth of mesmer- 
ism altogether, when he at length gave way to the entreaties 
of a friend in Paris to visit Alexis. I do not hesitate to men- 
tion briefly some particulars of the many he read to me be- 
cause the reports are in the mouth of all the fashionable world, 
and I heard nothing from him that I have not since heard from 
others in general society. Alexis was led by him to his house 
in Lowndes Square; and the character of the roads and 
houses on landing in England, the statue at Charing Cross, 



MEMORY. 93 

the Queen's palace, and the situation and number of the 
Colonel's house, then the interior, the stairs, landing-place, 
drawing rooms, and the persons actually in it at the time, as 
was proved afterwards by a letter received from Mrs. Gur- 
wood, he described admirably. He described the Colonel's 
own room, the number of engravings hanging on the wall, 
maintaining there were seven, whereas the Colonel declared 
they were but six and found himself wrong on returning to 
England : the subject of the engraving over the fire-place : a 
box in the room, and a very handsomely-bound volume in it, 
wrapped up, with French words upon the cover — (a volume 
of the Duke's Despatches, bound in green morocco and gilt, 
with the garter and French motto on the cover) : the book 
closets on each side of the fire-place, and the very confused 
state of the books in one : an inner room, with a closet at the 
further end, and two swords hanging in it, one from a very 
distant country, the point of one rusty : an eastern inscription 
upon one (a Damascus blade with Persian or Arabic charac- 
ters) : the relation of the Colonel's apartment in the Tower to 
other rooms : a Hebrew inscription on one of the walls of one 
of the rooms : the relations between the Duke and the Colonel, 
and many particulars respecting them and others, which could 
not be generally known, and which he of course did not read 
to me, were exact. He was taken to periods of the Colonel's 
life in the Peninsula : and saw him save a Frenchman's life 
after battle ; saw him disinterring the corpse of a friend ; and 
enabled him to trace out persons afterwards, who supplied 
him with testimony which he had long been hi want of. The 
Colonel had prevented the murder of a French officer after 
battle: and, on a subsequent visit to Spain, disinterred the 
body of a dear friend who had been thrown into the earth 
with others, and given him honorable burial. I cannot re- 
member half or a quarter : nor do I pretend to perfect accu- 
racy. He told the Colonel that the latter was going to dine 
in such a street and would go to the opera in the evening. 
The Colonel was going to dine in that street with Lord Cow- 
fc ley ; but had no idea of going to the opera: however in the 
evening Lord Cowley proposed their going, and they went." 
" In Vol. II. of The Zoist, p. 482, after slightly mentioning a 
number of facts witnessed, and detailed to me from his notes, 
by Colonel Gnrwood, proving beyond all doubt the extraordi- 
nary powers of Alexis, I stated that the Colonel had promised 
to give me a full account for publication, but afterwards ex- 
cused himself. I consider him on every account very wrong : 
and am now enabled, notwithstanding the non-fulfilment of 
his promise, to furnish your readers, in a circuitous way, 
with his own account of the extraordinary revelations made 
5* 



94 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

to him by Alexis respecting some testimony of which he had 
long stood in need to do justice to himself. In the Journal 
de Havre, last August, 20th, is an extract from the Journal 
Pandore, containing an account by a gentleman of his journey 
in the Malle Poste from Bordeaux to Paris, accidently with 
Colonel Gurwood, on the 24th of last November. After a 
time, the conversation turned upon mesmerism, in which 
the gentleman was a decided unbeliever, while Colonel Gur- 
wood, who till two years ago had been a despising sceptic 
too, declared his firm conviction of its truth. A friend, he 
said, had with difficulty prevailed upon him at Paris to visit a 
sleep -waker and mesmeriser. I give you the rest of the 
account in the writer's words, translated in the Cheltenham 
Free Press, of September 6th. 

" The mesmeriser was M. Marcillet, the patient Alexis 
Didier. 

" I shall pass over without notice a game of cards played 
between me and Alexis, and gained by him through his nam- 
ing the cards, although I had myself attached a triple band- 
age over his eyes. I shall not observe either upon the tetanic 
state of his legs, which were stiff paid insensible, under the 
influence of the fluid. I hasten to come to the statement of 
facts personal to myself. 

"After several experiments, I seated myself by the side of 
Alexis, my hand in his, and there we were chatting. 

" 6 My friend,' said I to him, ' I am incredulous, but I am 
so with good faith ; so do not fear on my part a systematic 
opposition.' 

" ' Oh ! I know that well ! you have too much good sense 
to deny evidence, and too much heart not to love those who 
love you — and I love you much myself, Englishman as you 
are ; I love you because you generously saved the life of a 
Frenchman !' 

" Singularly struck by this remark, I begged him to continue. 

" ( Yes,' continued Alexis, c it is a long time ago ! It is,' 
added he, after a pause, ' thirty years ! The affair took place 
there away, in the south, during the winter. The country is 
wild. There, see, the night, and your troops, provided with 
scaling-ladders, appearing under the walls of a strong place. 
My God, what a noise ! what a battle ! Poor man, you were 
wounded,' said Alexis, placing his hand on my head ; ' it was 
there that the blow fell — but your wound did not stop you. 
I see you farther on, mounting to the assault — on the breach. 
Stifled cries come to your ears : some English soldiers sur- 
round a Frenchman, whom they wish to kill. You run 
bravely. You lift up with your arms the weapons that 
menace his head, and you command them to respect his life. 



MEMORY. 95 

Oh ? come, I love you, indeed. The officer follows you to a 
square tower, where several of his comrades are made 
prisoners. You traverse the town to find your general, to 
whom, by your orders, the French general surrenders his 
sword. 5 

" ' And what became of this sword ?' 

" ' Your general presented it to you — and you have it still 
in London, suspended to the wall of your room ; the blade 
only is the same; the scabbard was changed in 1827.' 

" e And does the officer, whose life I saved, still exist ?' 

" ' Yes, he exists ; and for a long time you have made use- 
less researches to find him again. But have good hope, 
come again to-morrow, and we will discover him.' 

" Struck, affected by what I had just heard, I went out 
from M. Marcillet's with my head all on fire, not knowing 
what to think or believe ; for, in fine, Alexis has said what 
was the truth." 

We are now prepared to submit these narratives to the 
test of Swedenborg's averments respecting the transfer of 
memory in the other life. As the subject is full of interest 
from its relations to the law of mind and the developments 
of destiny in the world to come, we shall be ample in our 
extracts : 

" I imagined, like other people, before I was instructed by 
living experiences, that it was absolutely impossible for any 
spirit to know what was in my memory, and in my thought, 
those things being solely with myself, and concealed : but I 
can assert, that spirits, who are with man, know and observe 
the minutest particulars of his memory and thoughts, and 
this more clearly than man himself does ; and that angels 
know and observe the very ends, how they bend themselves 
from good to evil, and from evil to good, and many more 
things than man knows, as those things which he has im- 
mersed in delights, and thereby as it were in nature, and 
natural propensities, and when this is done, they no longer 
appear, because he no longer reflects upon them. Let not 
man therefore any longer believe, that his thoughts are con- 
cealed, and that he must not give an account of his thoughts, 
and of his actions according to the quantity and quality of 
the thoughts which were in them; for actions have their 
quality from the thoughts, and thoughts have their quality 
from the ends."— A C. 2488. 

" It has been shown me to the life, in what manner spirits 



96 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

flow in with man ; when they come to him, they put on ah 
things of his memory, thus all things which the man has 
learned and imbibed from infancy, and the spirits suppose 
these things to be their own, thus they act as it were the part 
of man with a man ; but it is not allowed them to enter fur- 
ther with man, than to his interiors which are of the thought 
and will, not to the exteriors which are of the actions and 
speech ; for these latter things come into act by a general 
influx from the Lord without the mediation of particular spi- 
rits and angels. But spirits, although they act the part of 
man with a man, as to those things which are of his thought 
and will, still however they do not know that they are with 
man, by reason that they possess all things of his memory, 
and believe that those things are not. another's but their own; 
and by reason also, lest they should hurt man ; for unless the 
spirits who are with man from hell believed those things to 
be their own, they would attempt by every method to destroy 
man as to the body and as to the soul, for this is infernal de- 
'ight itself"—^. C. 6192. 

"Because spirits possess all the things which are of man's 
thought and will, and angels the things which are yet more 
inward, and thereby man is most closely conjoined to them, 
therefore man cannot otherwise apperceive and feel, than 
that it is himself who thinks and wills ; for so the case is with 
communications in the other life, that in a society containing 
similar spirits, every one believes that to be his own, which 
is another's; wherefore the good, when they come into a hea- 
venly society, enter instantly into all the intelligence and wis- 
dom of that society, insomuch that they do not know other- 
wise, than that those things are in themselves ; so also it is 
with a man, and with a spirit with him." — A. C. 6193. 

" How difficult it is for man to believe that spirits know his 
thoughts, might be manifest to me from this. Before I dis- 
coursed with spirits, it happened that a certain spirit accosted 
me in a few words concerning the subject of my thoughts : 
I was amazed hereat, that a spirit should know what I was 
thinking about, because I supposed that such things were 
deeply "concealed, and known to God alone. Afterwards 
when 1 began to speak with spirits, 1 was indignant that I 
could not think anything but what they knew, and because 
this might be troublesome to me ; but afterwards by some 
days' habit it became familiar to me. At length it was also 
known, that spirits not only apperceive all things of mans 
thought and will, but even many more things than the man 
himself; and that the angels apperceive still more, namely, 
intentions and ends, from the first through the middle to the 



MEMORY. 97 

last. And that the Lord knows not only the quality of the 
whole man, but also what his quality will be to eternity. 
Hence it may be manifest, that nothing at all is hidden, but 
what man inwardly thinks and devises is open to view in the 
other life, as in clear day." — A. C. 6214. 

" When spirits come to man, they enter into all his memo- 
ry, and excite thence whatever suits themselves ; yea, what 
I have often observed, they read the things contained there- 
in as out of a book."— E. U. 13. 

" The spirits which have intercourse with man, enter into 
all his memory, and into all the sciences of memory which 
man possesses ; thus they put on all things which are man's, 
insomuch that they know not otherwise than that those 
things are theirs ; spirits have this prerogative above man. 
Hence it is, that all things which man thinks, they think, and 
that all things which man wills, they will; and reciprocally, 
all things which those spirits think, man thinks, and all 
things which those spirits will, man wills ; for they act as one 
by conjunction ; yet it is supposed by both, that such things 
are in themselves, and from themselves ; so spirits suppose, 
and so men, but this is a fallacy." — A. C. 5853. 

" Inasmuch as men after death are in the interior memory, 
which was of their rational, hence it is, that they who have 
been distinguished in the world for their skill in languages, 
are not able to call forth into utterance a single expression of 
those languages; and that they who have been distinguished 
for skill in the sciences, are not able to recollect anything of 
scientifics, and that these are sometimes more stupid than 
others. But whatever they have imbibed by languages or 
by sciences, this, because it has formed their rational, is 
brought forth into use ; the rational thence procured, is that, 
from which they think and speak ; he who has imbibed 
falses by languages and sciences, and has confirmed himself 
therein, reasons only from falses, but he who has imbibed 
truths, reasons and speaks from truths ; the affection is what 
gives life, the affection of evil what gives life to falses, and 
the affection of good what gives life to truths, for every one 
thinks from affection, and no one without affection."* — A. C. 
2480. 

* The case of the Rev. Wm. Termant strikingly illustrates what 
is here said of the obliteration of the memory of languages. He 
was several days in a trance and supposed to be dead. Upon re- 
covering he was found to have lost all recollection of what he had 
previously learned, and was compelled to begin the acquisition of 



98 [ MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

We are at a loss to conceive what ground there can be for 
questioning the truth of the coincidences here pointed out. 
The Mesmeric fact of the transfusion of memory is obvious, 
and "the spiritual phenomena detailed by Swedenborg evince 
the operation of precisely the same law in the intercommuni- 
tions of the other world. Kindred spirits come into each other's 
memory. We have indeed become somewhat prepared for 
such a development by what is previously shown respecting 
the transfer of present thought, and yet the revelation is full 
of wonder. We can easily appreciate the incredulity which 
Swedenb org's announcement of the fact would be likely to 
encounter at the period when it was made, which was many 
years prior to the discovery of Mesmerism. Yet the light 
thrown by this discovery on the hidden powers of our nature, 
has afforded a sustaining proof of the truth of his disclosures. 
Why should not this fact be allowed to plead strongly in be- 
half of all his alleged revelations ? Are they intrinsically any 
more incredible than the present ? Was a higher illumina- 
tion requisite to the unveiling of all the phenomena he has 
made known than of any part of them ? Do not the same 
reasons which moved the Divine Wisdom to open to him a 
part of the truths he has unfolded, apply to the whole ? We 
pause for a reply. 

The bearings of these mnemonic phenomena upon the sub- 
ject of judgment and destiny in the other life are very impres- 
sive. It appears, if the above disclosures are true, that the 
records of memory are indestructible — that the faintest lines 
traced by the most transient impressions are as indelible as if 
" engraven with the point of a diamond in the lead and rock 
for ever." There they are in everlasting permanence. And 
yet so aerial are they in their nature that even in the present 
life they may be transferred by the mystic magnetic corn- 
language de novo. The recollection, however, of his former at- 
tainments occurred to him suddenly, and everything was t once 
restored. But had he never recovered from his trance, he never 
would have regained the use of this, his corporeal memory. His 
state was very near death, and he experienced in part what others 
experience in full when they pass from the present to the future 
life. His case is given in the Appendix. 



MEMORY. 99 

munication and reproduced in all their original freshness and 
truth, in another mind! How luminously clear and une- 
quivocal then must be the unveiling of spirit to spirit in 
the world of perfect vision ! What a mystery of mys- 
teries is the intellectual and moral nature of man ! What 
eternal elements of happiness or misery are laid up in 
the stores of his memory ! The process of judgment is but 
the plenary revelation of the internal man, not to the eye of 
Jehovah, to whom it was always known, but to his own and 
to that of associated spirits in whose presence he cannot but 
be.* His entire moral history is written on his memory, 
which is one with the perpetuity of his life, and this life is 
reproduced in its minutest items in the future world, and as 
it is reproduced, it is read as a present reality, and not merely 
as a recital of past events. A man's life on earth is lived for 
ever. How momentous the witnessings to this effect con- 
tamed in the ensuing extracts : 

" The interior memory therefore, is such, that there are in- 
scribed in it all the particular things, yea the most particular, 
which man has at any time thought, spoken, and done, yea 
which have appeared to him as a shadow, with the most 
minute circumstances, from his earliest infancy to extreme 
old age. Man has with him the memory of all these things 
when he comes into another life, and is successively brought 
into all recollection of them ; this is the Book of his Life, 
which is opened in another life, and according to which he 
is judged ; man can scarce believe this, but still it is most 
true : all his ends, which were to him in obscurity, all that 
he had thought, and likewise all that he had spoken and 
done, as derived from those ends, are to the most minute 
point, in that book, that is, in the interior memory, and are 
made manifest before the angels, in a light as clear as day, 
whenever the Lord concedes it : this has at times been shown 



* "The damnation of those who are in evifs is not effected in a 
moment, when they come into the other life, but after they have 
been first visited, that is, explored. Explorations are made to the 
intent that they themselves may apperceive that they must needs 
be damned, because they have not lived otherwise ; also that 
spirits and angels may know that they have been of such a quality % y 
thus they can no longer be exculpated bv either themselves or 
others."— A. C. 7273. 



100 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

me, and evidenced by so much and various experience, that 
not the least of doubt is left. 

"It is known to no one hitherto, what the state of souls 
after death is in respect to the memory; but it has been given 
me to know, by much and daily experience now during seve- 
ral years, that man after death does not lose the least of those 
things which have been in his memories, as well in the exte- 
rior, as in the interior, so that no circumstance can be con- 
ceived so small or trifling, that it is not reserved with him ; 
he leaves nothing at all therefore behind him at death, but 
only bones and flesh, which, while he lived in the world, 
were not animated of themselves, but by the life of his spirit, 
which was his purer substance annexed to corporeals." 
— A. C, 2474-2475. 

" That men have with them in another life all and single 
things of the corporeal memory, was also very frequently 
made manifest to me from those, whom I had known in 
their lifetime, in that, when I spoke with them, they recol- 
lected all and single things which they had done when I was 
present, and which they had spoken, and which at such 
times they had thought. From these, and many other expe- 
riences, it has been given me to know certainly, that man 
carries with him into another life all things pertaining to the 
exterior or corporeal memory." — A. C. 2486. 

The following has respect especially to the relation of the 
records of memory to the process of judgment in the other life. 

" That man, when he passes out of the world, has also 
with him all his memory, has been shown by many circum- 
stances : concerning which many things worthy to be men- 
tioned have been seen and heard, some of which I will relate 
in order. There were those who denied their crimes and 
villanies which they had perpetrated in the world ; where- 
fore, lest they should be believed innocent, all were disclosed, 
and were recounted from their memory in order, from their 
earliest age to the latest ; they were principally adulteries 
and whoredoms. There were some who had deceived others 
by wicked arts, and who had stolen : their deceits and thefts 
were also enumerated in a series, many of which were known 
;o scarcely any one in the world, except to themselves alone; 
;hey also acknowledged them, because they were made 
manifest as in the light, with every thought, intention, de- 
light, and fear, which then together agitated their minds. 
There were some who had accepted bribes, and had made 
gain of judgment : they from their memory were in like man- 
ner explored, and from it were recounted all things, from the 



MEMORY. 101 

first period of their office to the last ; every particular, as to 
quantity and quality, together with the time, and their state 
of mind and intention, all which things were at the same 
time brought to their recollection, and shown to their sight, 
which were more than several hundreds. This was done 
with some ; and what is wonderful, their memorandum- 
books themselves, in which they had written such things, 
were opened and read before them, from page to page. 
There were some who had enticed virgins to acts of fornica- 
tion, and who had violated chastity, and they were called to 
a similar judgment ; and every particular of their crimes was 
drawn forth and recited from their memory : the very faces 
of the virgins and women were also exhibited as present, 
with the places, conversation, and purposes, and this as sud- 
denly as when anything is presented to view ; the manifest- 
ations continued sometimes for hours together. There was 
one who had esteemed backbiting ^thers as nothing, and I 
heard his backbitings recounted 'in order, and defamations 
also, with the very words, the persons concerning whom and 
before whom ; all which were produced and presented to the 
life at the same time ; and yet everything was studiously con- 
cealed by him when he lived in the world. There was a 
certain one who had deprived a relative of his inheritance, 
under a fraudulent pretext : he also was in like manner con- 
victed and judged, and what was wonderful, the letters and 
papers which passed between them, were read in my hear- 
ing, and it was said that not a word was wanting. The 
same person also, shortly before his death, clandestinely 
destroyed his neighbor by poison, which w^as disclosed in 
this manner. He appeared to dig a hole under feet, from 
which a man came forth, as out of a sepulchre, and cried out 
to him, What hast thou done to me ? Then everything was 
revealed, how the murderer talked with him in a friendly 
manner, and held out the cup, also what he thought before, 
and what afterwards came to pass ; which things being dis- 
closed, he was sentenced to hell. In a word, all evils, vil- 
lanies, robberies, artifices, deceits, are manifested to every 
evil spirit, and brought forth from their very memory, and 
they are convicted ; nor is there any room given for denial, 
because all the circumstances appear together. I have heard 
also from the memory of a certain one, when it was seen 
and surveyed by the angels, what his thoughts had been 
during a month, one day after another, and this without fal- 
lacy ; which were recalled as he himself was in them on 
those days. From these examples it may be manifest, that 
man carries along with him all his memory, and that there 
is nothing so concealed in the world, that it is not manifested 
after death ; and this in the company of many, according to 



102 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the Lord's words : 4 There is nothing hidden which shall not 
be uncovered, and nothing concealed which shall not be 
known ; therefore the things which ye have said in darkness 
shall be heard in light, and what ye have spoken into the ear 
shall be preached on the house-tops s (Luke xii. 2, 3)." 

" When man's acts are disclosed to him after death, the an- 
gels to whom is given the office of inquisition, look into his 
face, and the search is extended through the whole body, 
beginning from the fingers of one hand, and of the other, and 
thus proceeding through the whole. Because I wondered 
whence this was, it was disclosed to me, namely, that as all 
things of the thought and will are inscribed on the brain, for 
their principles are there, so also they are inscribed on the 
whole body ; since all the things of thought and will proceed 
thither from their principles, and there terminate, as in their 
ultimates. Hence it is, that the things which are inscribed 
on the memory, from Ihe will, and thence its thought, are 
not only inscribed on me brain, but also on the whole man, 
and there exist in order, according to the order of the parts 
of the body. Hence it 'was made evident, that man in the 
whole is such as he is in his will and thought thence, so that 
an evil man is his own evil, and a good man his own good. 
From these things also it may be manifest what is meant by 
the book of man's life, spoken of in the Word, namely, this, 
that all things, both which have been acted and which have 
been thought, are inscribed on the whole man, and that they 
appear as if read in a book when they are called forth from 
the memory, and as if seen in effigy, when the spirit is view- 
ed in the light of heaven. To these things I would add some- 
thing memorable concerning the memory of man remaining 
after death ; by which I was confirmed, that not only general 
things, but also the most singular, which have entered the 
memory, remain, and are never obliterated. There appeared 
to me books with writings therein as in the world, and I was 
instructed that they were from the memory of those who 
wrote, and that there was not a single word wanting there, 
which was in the book written by the same person in the 
world ; and that thus from the memory of another may be 
taken the minutest particulars, even those which he himself 
in the world had forgotten. The reason was also disclosed, 
namely, that man has an external and an internal memory, 
an external memory which is of his natural man, and an inter- 
nal memory which is of his spiritual man ; and that everything 
which man has thought, willed, spoken, done, also which he 
has heard and seen, is inscribed on his internal or spiritual 
memory : and that the things which are there are never 
erased, since they are inscribed at the same time on the spirit 
itself, and on the members of its body, as was said above ; 



MEMORY. 103 

and thus that the spirit is formed according to the thoughts 
and acts of its will. I know that these things appear as para- 
doxes, and thence are scarcely believed, but still they are 
true. Let no man therefore believe, that anything which a 
man has thought in himself, and has done in secret, is con- 
cealed after death: but let him believe that each and all 
things then appear as in clear day." — H. fy H. 462-463. 

Such is the process of judicial exploration in the other 
world — a process upon which the spirit enters, not at some 
indefinitely distant period called " the end of the world," but 
immediately upon its emergence from the earthly tenement. 
But the judgment of each individual cannot occur prior to 
his resurrection. The resurrection therefore must be simul- 
taneous with his departure from the flesh. It is in fact mere- 
ly his resuscitation into the new life of the spirit- world, and 
it is by this name that it is mostly called by Swedenborg. 
The true judgment and the true resurrection are both to be 
referred to the same era of man's existence. Both take 
place immediately after death, and the reason why both these 
events have been deferred by theologians to the so-called 
" end of the world " is because they have suffered themselves 
to be governed by the sense of letter of the Word, as express- 
ed in certain texts, instead of forming their conclusions from 
the general tenor of the whole, as elicited by a diligent compari- 
son of Scripture with Scripture ; to which we may add an 
almost total neglect of the study of the psychological nature of 
man under the influence of the false and pernicious tenet, 
that in regard to all the profoundest themes of revelation, the 
understanding is to be held subject to faith. A new view of hu- 
man destiny must inevitably be adopted when it is seen, as 
it eventually will be, that Swedenborg' s disclosures rest upon 
principles which carry with them as much evidence of truth 
as it is possible for the literal announcements of the Scrip- 
tures to do. If the nature of man is intrinsically such that all 
his words, actions, and thoughts are indelibly inscribed upon 
the very essential elements of his being, and the record is 
capable of being intuitively read by the eyes of spirits, his 
judgment, in the exploration of his interiors, must necessari- 
ly ensue upon his being introduced into the sphere of spirit- 
ual communication. 



104 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

CHAPTER VI. 



MAGNETIC VISION. 

Whatever else may be regarded as. doubtful in reference 
to the effects produced by the Mesmeric action, it is clearly 
beyond question, that a new mode of vision is developed in 
its subjects. They give evidence of a species of sight which 
does not depend upon the functions of the outward organ. 
With their eyes bandaged, or in the darkest room, they will 
often read, either from printed or manuscript matter, will de- 
tect the true time by a watch, and accurately describe per- 
sons and objects which no other one present can by any pos- 
sibility perceive. Facts of this kind, though doubtless of an 
abnormal character, are rendered credible by similar phe- 
nomena often witnessed in natural somnambulism, as in fact 
are nearly all the distinguishing features of Mesmerism.* Of 
the philosophy of this we do not at present speak. The 
reader will shortly see the solution of the problem on the 
principles laid down by Swedenborg, as to which he will be 
able to judge for himself whether any better has been or can 
be proposed. As a suitable introduction to this we present 
the following array of testimonies as to the alleged fact. 

" I have already stated that I have seen sleepwakers descry 
objects when their eyes were, to all appearance, perfectly 
closed ; but my experiments on this head were not so rigor- 
ous but that it might still be objected that mesmeric patients, 
like certain politicians, 

" See through all things with their half-shut eyes." 

ec I now proceed to show that, in many cases, such a sup- 
position is untenable, and that the mesmeric sleep waker 
may have a mode of vision to which the usual conditions of 
sight are altogether wanting. 

" The first time that I mesmerized Anna M 9 a work- 
box, which she had never seen before, was held before her. 
She stooped her forehead towards it in a manner that struck 

* An extended recital of facts of this nature Will be found in 
Bertrand's work on the Extase Magnetique, Paris, 1826. 



MAGNETIC VISION. 105 

me, and immediately named what it was. The box having 
been opened, the sjeepwaker again bent her forehead till it 
was nearly parallel with its surface, then rapidly named the 
various objects it contained, and,, taking them up one by one 
in her hand, seemed desirous of examining them more par- 
ticularly. But, to my surprise, she waved the articles about 
before her, as if trying in what point of view she could best 
descry them, holding them to various parts of her face and 
forehead, and exclaiming, as if perplexed, 'Where, then, are 
my eyes ? 5 At length she seemed best satisfied when hold- 
ing objects before her forehead, at the distance of a few inches, 
declaring that she saw them most distinctly there. In order 
to put her assertions to the proof, I held my watch before the 
forehead of the sleepwaker, without descending it to the level 
of her eyes. She took it from me, and, not lowering it in 
the least, held it so turned as that it formed an acute angle 
with her forehead, immediately above her eyebrow. It is to 
be remarked that she thus presented the watch to her fore- 
head, first on the right side, then on the left, as if to submit 
it to the scrutiny of a double organ. After this she named 
the exact hour and minute. The hands having been altered, 
she found the time with equal correctness. 

" A poppy being held before her forehead, she said, c I see 
a red flower, but I do not exactly know its name.' 

" Remembering that an experienced mesmerizer had told 
me that sleep wakers in general perform most readily any- 
thing which gives them pleasure in their waking state, and 
observing, in conformity with this statement, that Anna 

M , who was an expert needle-woman, took particular 

interest in the workbox and its appendages, I proposed to her 
to proceed with a piece of work which was at hand. She 
immediately took the work, and, holding it always on a level 
with her forehead , went on methodically with the hem of 
the piece of muslin I had given her. When necessary, she 
turned down a new fold, and in every respect performed her 
task as well as she could have done awake. The work, sub- 
mitted to female judgment, was pronounced to be a capital 
piece of sempstress-craft, the stiches being even, and not one 
of them dropped. 

"After this we often gave Anna M work to do in the 

mesmeric state, when parties of ten or twelve persons have 
been present, to witness her extraordinary development of 
vision. She continued to hold everything to her forehead ; 
and with her hands raised to that level, in a position wiiich, 
under ordinary circumstances, would be difficult and painful, 
has embroidered delicate flowers upon muslin, and even 
threaded her needle, without apparent effort. 



i 



106 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

Ci As it is my sincere desire to give a correct picture of 
mesmeric sleep waking, I would on no account represent this 
power of vision as greater than it really was, or omit the in- 
consistencies which attended its exercise. That it was by 
no means even or constant cannot but be acknowledged, 
though I am by no means prepared to develope the cause of 
its caprices. Thus Anna, though giving incontestable proofs 
of vision by the forehead, could not be brought to distinguish 
printed or written letters in the mesmeric state except on one 
occasion, when she read her own name, "which I had written 
in a large hand, and held at once before her forehead. Jt 
seemed to me that her new visual faculty was always in its 
best condition when spontaneously exerted, and that any ef- 
fort on her part, any over-anxiety to fulfil our requisitions, 
marred it altogether. I have often asked her to name an object, 
which I have allowed her to examine as she would ; but she 
has not named it, though apparently striving earnestly to do 
so. Again, she has indicated other things spontaneously 
when it was quite impossible for her to have discerned them 
in the ordinary manner. It was when she was sitting quietly, 
and apparently forgetful that she was an object of observa- 
tion, that she displayed the most remarkable phenomena of 
vision. One instance, however, is better than a thousand as- 
sertions. She was sitting with her head so much bent down 
as to bring the upper part of her forehead parallel to the wall 
of the apartment. In this position, with her eyes closed, it 
was impossible for her to have seen, in any usual way, ob- 
jects that were immediately fronting her. So placed, I observ- 
ed her smile, and asked her why she did so. ' I am smiling,' 

she said, * because I am pleased to see Mrs. opposite to 

me.' ' You see her, then, well ?' I inquired. ' Yes ; she has 
a cup of tea in her hand.' Upon this the lady in question 
adroitly changed the cup of tea for a book ; upon which Anna 
immediately remarked, < But now she has taken a book.' 
The lady then opened the book, and held it by the two sides, 
spread out exactly on a level with the forehead of the sleep - 
waker, who said directly, * Oh ! she holds the book quite 
open by its two ends.' 

" This experiment, neither suggested nor in any way con- 
ducted by myself, was interesting to me in no trifling degree, 
and was convincing to all who witnessed it. 

" Another singular circumstance was, that no one could 
put on an ugly mask that lay about the room, and to which 
Amia, in her mesmeric state, had a great aversion, without 
her testifying, by faces expressive of dislike, that she was 
aware of the circumstance. We have tried this when the 
sleepwaker was occupied by other things, and with every 



MAGNETIC VISION, 107 

precaution of making no noise, &c, yet the result was al- 
ways the same. 

" When placed before a looking-glass, she could indicate, 
more correctly than at any other time, the gestures of persons 
standing near her and seen by reflection. I have pulled out 
her comb, and she has arranged her hair again perfectly be- 
fore a mirror, holding her forehead parallel to its surface. 
Being asked if she saw herself with her eyes open or shut, 
she replied, ' Open, to be sure ;' and, when I reasoned with 
her on this point, she replied, ' I see as if my eyes were open ; 
and so they must appear to me open.' It is singular that another 
sleepwaker gave me exactly the same answers under the 
same circumstances. I shall refer again to the subject, which 
is of metaphysical importance. 

" A gentleman who was once present during a mesmeriza- 

tion of Anna M , being placed ' en rapport' with her, laid 

his hand upon her forehead, when she exclaimed, 6 Why do 
you cover my eyes ? ' He then touched her eyes, and asked, 
* What part of your face am I touching now ?' The sleepwaker 
seemed perplexed, and at length answered, fi It is a part of 
my cheek, is it not ? ' 

" When asked to point out where different persons were 
placed in the apartment during her sleepwaking, she never 
failed to do so, however their respective positions might be 
changed, leaning her forehead forward all the time, and pre- 
senting it to each individual. At the instant of recognising 
each person she always gave one or two convulsive starts, 
as if her forehead came in contact with some invisible thing. 

" The account that she gave of her visual perceptions was 
sufficiently confused. These are her own w^ords relative to 
this subject, taken down on one occasion by a friend : ' It is 
all clear through my forehead. Sometimes I see so clear ! 
But then, again, there is a sort of light cloud that comes over 
the clearness, and then I can hardly see anything. I do not see 
as with two eyes, but here (passing her hand across her fore- 
head), with my brain.' 

" Already, in various accounts of experiments, I have men- 
tioned E. A , a boy aged fifteen, whom I had opportuni- 
ties of frequently mesmerising. This patient, of all whom I 
have ever seen, manifested in sleepwaking the most extraor- 
dinary development of visual power. 

" Though the power of vision was greatest in the forehead, 
yet at times, and especially when he was excited, and not in 
any way called upon to exhibit (for such requisitions often 
seemed to fetter his faculties), he seemed to see on every side 
of him, as if his head were one organ of visual perception. 
This is no exaggeration, as the following instance will show: 



108 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

He was once sitting on a sofa in the mesmeric state, when a 
gentleman with whom he was well acquainted came behind 
the sofa and made all kinds of antics. On this the sleep - 

waker exclaimed, ' Oh, Mr. D ! do not suppose I cannot 

see you : you are now doing so and so ' (describing all Mr. 

D 's gestures). ' You have now taken a paper-cutter into 

your hand, and now a knife. Indeed, you had better go 
away, and not make yourself so ridiculous.' Another time 
he was sitting at a table, writing music, with his back to the 
door, when a servant entered the apartment : ' Oh, Mademoi- 
selle L ! is that you ?' he said. ' How quietly you stand 

there with your arms folded.' He was quite correct in all he 
said. Directly after this I took up a bottle from a table be- 
hind the patient, and held it up to the back of his head, ask- 
ing him if he knew what I held. He instantly replied, ' A 
bottle to be sure.' 

" I have tried various methods of bandaging the oatient's 
eyes. I have tied a broad and thick silk handkerchief over 
them, and then I have held down with my fingers or the 
palms of my hands the whole of the bottom part of the band- 
age. This method seems to me as perfect as any. It did not at 
all impede the sleep waiter's vision. In addition to this (the 
same result always ensuing), I have laid strips of wadding 
over the eyes before applying the handkerchief, and I have 
firmly secured every possible interstice between it and the 
cheek with cotton. In the presence of Dr. Foissac, strips of 
diachylum were added to all the above apparatus, in order 
to fasten down the edges of the handkerchief to the cheek; 
but the sleepwaker saw as well as ever. On several occa- 
sions I bandaged his eyes, adding the cotton and the wadding 
before beginning to mesmerize him, when he assured me that he 
could not distinguish day from night. Then, having passed 
into sleepwaking, he has immediately given proofs of perfect 
vision, quite as perfect, indeed, as that enjoyed by persons 
whose eyes are open and unbound. Again, on awaking (the 
bandage never having been stirred during the whole period 
of his sleepwaking), he has found himself hi perfect dark- 
ness. The transition was marked. One moment, drawn by 
the strong attraction of my presence, he was following me 
about the room, through intricacies of chairs and tables, with 
perfect ease ; the next, he was standing helpless, not caring 
to be near me, and if called upon, unable to move, except 
with the groping hesitation of a blindfold person. I remark- 
ed that he did not wake so easily with the bandage on as 
when he had no bandage. The action of the transverse 
passes that I used to that effect seemed modified by the in- 
terposing substance. The striking proofs of vision that the 



MAGNETIC VISION. 109 

patient gave when properly bandaged were, that he read in 
books, and distinguished cards, their colors, suit, &c, often 
playing with me at various games upon them. I remarked 
that in sleep waking he was quite adroit at the game of cas- 
sino, which Iliad almost vainly tried to teach him in the wak- 
ing state. It will be allowed that for a person, even bandaged 
in a slovenly manner, to perceive at a glance the combina- 
tions on the board, would be no easy matter; yet this he did 
with rapidity, completely bandaged as he was. 

" Remembering that E. A , on his father's testimony, 

had, in natural sleep waking, seemed to perceive objects in 
total darkness, I was curious to see whether, in mesmeric 
sleep waking, he would manifest a similar phenomena of sen- 
sation. I therefore, having mesmerised him, took him with 
me into a dark press or closet, of which I employed a friend 
to hold to the door in such a manner as that no ray of light 
should penetrate through the crevice or keyhole. Then, like 
the hero of < The Curse of Kehama.' 

' I open'd my eyes and I closed them, 
And the blackness and blank were the same.' 

"My utmost efforts to see my hand only produced those 
sparks and flashes that waver before the eye in complete ob- 
scurity. Having thus ascertained the perfect darkness of the 
closet, I drew a card at hazard from a pack with which I had 
provided myself, and presented it to the sleep waker. He said 
it was so and so. I repeated this to my friend, whom I then 
told to open the door. The admission of light established the 
correctness of the sleep waker : it was the card he had named. 
The experiment repeated four times gave the same satisfacto- 
ry result. This peculiar development of vision was, like the 
other faculties of the sleepwaker, capable of improvement 
through exercise. At first he seemed unable to read in the 
dark ; then, like a person learning the alphabet, he came to 
distinguish large single letters, which I had printed for him 
on card, and at length he could make out whole sentences of 
even small print. While thus engaged in deciphering letters 
or in ascertaining cards, the patient always held one of my 
hands, and sometimes laid it on his brow, affirming that it 
increased his clair-voyance. He would also beg me to breathe 
upon the objects which he desired to see. He used to de- 
clare that the more complete the darkness was, the better he 
could exercise his new mode of perception; asserting that, 
when in the dark, he did not come to the knowledge of ob- 
jects in the same manner as when he was in the light: 
' Quand je suis dans l'obscurite,' he said, ' il y a une lumiere 
qui sort de mon cerveau, et qui tappe justement sur l'objet ; 

6 



110 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

tandis que, dans la lumiere, 1'impression monte depuis l'objei 
jusqu' a mon cerveau.' Often, when I could not see a ray of 
light, he used to complain that the closet was not dark 
enough, and, in order to thicken the obscurity, he would 
wrap up his head in a dressing-gown which hung in the closet. 
At other times he would thrust his head into the remotest 
corner of the press. His perception of colors, when exercis- 
ed hi obscurity, sustained but little alteration. He has named 
correctly the different tints of a set of colored glasses. It was, 
however, worthy of remark, that he was apt to mistake be- 
tween the harmonic colors green and red, not only when he 
was in the dark, but when his eyes were bandaged. 

" Many persons can bear testimony to the accuracy of the 
above experiments ; and I refer to the Appendix for proofs 
that I sought for witnesses and invited scrutiny, feeling that 
such things as I had to narrate could scarcely be credited on 
the word of a single person." — Townshend's Facts, p. 160-175. 

" Sir, — Since the account of the phenomena of clairvoyance, 
exhibited by Mr. Alexis, app eared in your columns of last 
week, another private party have witnessed a similar exhibi- 
tion at the house of Dr. Eliiotson, at which I had the honor 
of being present ; and the following plain statement of what 
I then saw will, I think, be interesting to your readers. I 
must premise, that I had never before seen any experiments 
whatever in animal magnetism, &c. ; that I was totally unac- 
quainted with Dr. Eliiotson, Mr. Marcillet, and Mr. Alexis ; 
and that I went, note-book in hand, prepared to watch and 
observe as accurately as possible, and that this account is 
drawn up from the notes 1 then made. Alexis having seated 
himself hi a large easy chair, Mr. Marcillet stood in front of 
him, and after fixing his eyes upon him for about four mi- 
nutes the magnetic sleep was produced. During this opera- 
tion there were convulsive motions of the limbs and muscles 
of the face, and every now and then Alexis turned his eyes 
towards the operator, as it seemed to me, with an expression 
of pain, and almost entreaty to desist. The convulsive mo- 
tions subsided after a few passes by the operator, and then 
the phenomena of catalepsy were shown, His hands were 
extended, and became quite rigid, and were again relaxed by 
Mr. Marcillet passing his hand once or twice over them. His 
legs were then stretched out, and, to test their rigidity, a 
gentleman, weighing at least 14 stone, stood upright upon 
them, Alexis' body being kept balanced by two gentlemen 
pressing on his shoulders. Alexis is by no means strong in 
appearance ; but I apprehend the strongest man would find 
the above feat difficult. It was then proposed to bandage his 



MAGNETIC VISION. Ill 

eyes. A quantity of cotton wool was placed over them, and 
kept down by three handkerchiefs, one encircling the head, 
the other two placed diagonally. The gentleman — a visitor, 
like myself — who undertook the tying, did not seem to do it 
to Alexis' satisfaction, for he said, ' Serrez fort, serrez fort' 
(tie it tight), and, still being dissatisfied, he seized the ends 
of the handkerchief, and tied them himself. The visitors 
were then asked to examine the handkerchiefs, and each per- 
son who did so was satisfied that vision was impossible. A 
pack of cards was then brought, which, it should be remark- 
ed, had glazed and ornamented backs, so that it would have 
been more than ordiDarily difficult to see through them, even 
with a strong light behind. A visitor came forward to play, 
and Alexis seated himself at the table which was in the mid- 
dle of the room, so that there was a cross light. He seized 
the cards, a full pack, in a quick, hurried manner, and sorted 
them for ecarte. He did this with great rapidity, and made 
but one mistake. Several games were played, during which 
he frequently told his adversary what cards he had in his 
hand, as on one occasion that he had three tens, on another 
that he had four trumps; and again he called for the cards 
seriatim which his adversary was to play. Once or twice he 
made mistakes, as saying the nine of hearts instead of the 
seven, but in the great majority of instances was right. Anoth- 
er person then took the cards, and the same wonders were 
repeated. He them moved away from the table, and played 
at the distance of about four yards from his adversary, but he 
still told the cards as before, and played his own frequently 
without looking at their faces. . During the whole of this time 
Mr. Marcillet stood at some little distance, and from time to 
time repeated the passes. Dr. Elliotson took no part in the 
proceedings. Alexis was then asked to read, and a volume 
of Le Moyen, Age Pittoresque, was placed before him. The 
wool and bandages were still unmoved, but he read off from 
the page wherever he was told by any of the visitors, and 
by myself amongst the rest. On one occasion he continued 
to do so, although two hands were placed before his face and 
the type. He seemed, however, to find this somewhat more 
difficult. He was very animated, and talked rapidly as he 
turned over the pages, as if pleased with his own exploits. 
Whilst doing this, and just as he had said, in answer to a 
question, that the picture was a cathedral?, I interrupted him 
hastily with, ' Mais quelle cathedrale ? ' He replied, * C'est une 
bonne question,' and placing his hand upon the letter-press, in- 
stantly said, ' Notre dame de Chalon,' which was quite correct. 
He also accurately described some figures in armor. He then, 
of his own accord, offered to read a line five pages off; but 



112 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

in this he failed. A volume of Bossuet was then brought 
from Dr. Elliotson's library, no visitor having brought one. 
He took my hand and asked me to show him what to read, 
and read several times correctly. In one instance he read 
the two following lines, — ' O est encore pour eux un grand cm- 
bar r as de voir que (le) prophete fasse alter le temps du Christ (Jesus). 9 
He however insisted that it was 'le 9 and not ' ce 9 and read 
' Jesus Christ ' instead of ' Christ' only. On this part of the ex- 
periments no greater stress can be laid, as after the Bossuet 
was brought he complained of the great heat and threw off 
the handkerchiefs, so that his eyes were only closed as in 
sleep. He then said, separating about 150 pages of the vol- 
ume, and holding them firmly together, that he would read 
some words on "whichever part of the page I pleased, but 
would not undertake to say how far off the words were. I 
then pointed out the side and part of the page that I wished, 
and he gave the words ( Tite-Live 9 and 'Romulus; 9 saying 
that each commenced a paragraph. This was not done im- 
mediately, but the leaves were not opened at all. I examin- 
ed the book, and found about 80 pages on the words ' Tite- 
Live, 9 and about 150 the word 'Romulus, 9 each in the place 
and position required by me, and each commencing a para- 
graph. He then seated himself in the large chair once more, 
and a stranger (I believe, Dr. Castle of Milan) sat down by 
him, and put himself en rapport with him. I did not hear the 
conversation, but Dr. Castle afterwards stated to those present, 
that Alexis had described to him accurately how he (Dr. Cas- 
tle) had passed the preceding night, and the nature and seat 
of the pain that he had suffered from. But further and. more 
satisfactory proofs of clairvoyance were given. Alexis read 
a word (content) that was enclosed in a card-board box, and 
presented to him for that purpose by a visitor. He made out 
the letters o n first, and the others after some difficulty. But 
in a case of this kind, every one naturally distrusts every ex- 
periment not made by himself. I therefore took out my 
pocket-book and wrote three words ; but being asked to put 
one only, I wrote in another place * ami 9 I showed this to no 
one, but turning a leaf over it, said 1 had written a word 
which I wished him to read. It was one of Penny's metallic 
pocket-books, so that any of your readers may test the prac- 
ticability of seeing a light pencil-mark through. I kept the 
leaf pressed firmly over the word, and upon the body of the 
book, and held it in his hand. Directly he placed his hand 
in my other hand, he said, merrily, c Que vous etes bonf II n 9 y 
a que trois lettres ' (How kind you are — there are but three let- 
ters). I assented. He then wrote nearly, but not exactly 
over it, the letter a, then turned to me, and said, ' That is 



MAGNETIC VISION. 113 

right.' I assented. He then wrote m t and inquired in the 
same way. I said nothing. He repeated the question. I re- 
mained silent. He then said in a jocose half-bantering tone 
— (to this effect) — ' You may just as well say so, because you 
know it is.' I then said ' Oui.' He repeated it after me in 
high glee, and added instantly the i, scratching a fine flourish 
underneath to show that he had succeeded. I showed the 
pocket-book to those present, and all were satisfied that they 
could not have read it. It is now in my possession, and I 
■would show it to any one who might wish to see it. 

" I make no comments on the above facts, I attempt no ex- 
planation; bat it is right to add, that all present, and among 
them were several medical men, were perfectly satisfied of 
the fairness of the experiments. No one would suggest any 
possible plan of collusion. I can be surprised at no one be- 
ing incredulous until he has seen the experiments with his 
own eyes. For even now, without again scrutinizing anoth- 
er series of experiments, I could not honestly say that I was 
altogether convinced. I only say, that if there be deception, 
the deception would be almost more wonderful than the re- 
ality. I send you my name and address, and remain, 

Sir, your obedient servant, 

An Inquirer after Truth." 
[The Zoistyp. 496-499. 

Such is a very small portion of the evidence capable of be- 
ing adduced in support of the fact, that Mesmeric subjects 
are frequently able to see without the use of their eyes. 
" Vision," says M. Teste, " through the closed eyelids and 
through opaque bodies, is not only a real fact, but a very fre- 
quent fact. There is no magnetiser who has not observed it 
twenty times, and I know at the present day, in Paris alone, 
a very great number of somnambulists who might furnish 
proofs of it. The fact of reading under the same conditions, 
a fact which, in the whole, is just the same, is met much 
more seldom, which may readily be conceived ; this is the 
phenomenon in all its perfection." 

On turning to the pages of Swedenborg a new and sublime 
philosophy of visual sensation is opened before us. Accord- 
ing to his profound teaching, the sight of the eye is in fact the 
sight of the intellect going forth, as it were, through the por- 
tal of the outward sense, and thus holding converse with the 
material world. This power is usually and normally exer- 



114 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

cised through the medium of the optic apparatus, but is not 
absolutely dependent upon it, for there is in fact an interior 
eye — an eye of the spirit — and this eye sees by another light 
than that of the natural sun. As the internal eye ordinarily 
acts in this life in conjunction with the external, so that man 
cannot discriminate between the functions of the one and 
those of the other, in like manner the element of spiritual 
light is invisibly interfused within thai of natural light, and 
it is only by an abnormal process that this ulterior vision 
is 'opened and that objects previously hidden come to the 
mind's knowledge. Such an effect is, to a greater or less 
extent, produced in the somnambulic or Mesmeric state. All 
men possess the power in potency, but is is only in given 
conditions that it is developed. It is a faculty into which all 
come in the other life, and it is because the Mesmeric state 
has so near an affinity with the state of disembodied spirits 
that it is so strikingly evinced in the subjects of that state.* 

The pertinency of the following paragraphs to the subject 
before us will strike the reader at once. 

" The intellectual in general is the visual of the internal 
man, which sees from the light of heaven which is from the 
Lord, and what it sees, is all spiritual and celestial ; but the 



* It is, however, to be remarked, that spirits fully disembodied 
do not see material objects unless it be through the eyes of those 
whose spiritual sight is opened in the present life. That such ob- 
jects are visible to the magnetised is doubtless owing to the fact., 
that they are still so far connected with the corporeal that their 
visual functions follow, in this respect, the usual law, although the 
mode of their seeing is, notwithstanding, different, as the light does 
not reach the sensorium through the same medium. It is, more- 
over, doubtless true, that the clearness with which material objects 
are perceived in the Mesmeric state is not a test of the superiority 
of the clairvoyant vision. This power usually becomes diminished 
in proportion as the subject rises into the region of pure spiritual 
discernment. He then approximates more nearly the state of a 
spirit fully emancipated from the flesh. It is for the most part 
from recent and novitiate subjects that the very striking descrip- 
tions are elicited of persons and objects and scenery pertaining to 
the material world. By degrees they come to consider everything 
of this nature comparatively trifling and as not altogether consis- 
tent with the high and sacred uses to which the power is to be 
applied. 



MAGNETIC VISION. 115 

sensual in general is of the external man, here the sensual of 
sight, because this corresponds and is subordinate to the 
intellectual ; this sensual sees from the light of the world 
which is from the sun, and what it sees, is all worldly, corpo- 
real, and terrestial. There are given in man derivations from 
the intellectual, which is in the light of heaven, to the sen- 
sual which is hi the light of the world ; unless these were 
given, the sensual could not have any life, such as the human 
life is : the sensual of man has not life in consequence of see- 
ing from the light of the world, for the light of the world has 
in it no life, but in consequence of seeing from the light of 
heaven, for this light has life in it ; when this light falls with 
man into those things which are from the light of the world, 
then it vivifies them, and causes him to see objects intellec- 
tually, thus as a man ; thence man, from the scientifics which 
had their birth from those things which he had seen and heard 
in the world, consequently from those things which had en- 
tered by sensuals, has intelligence and wisdom, and from this 
latter, civil, moral, and spiritual life." — A. C. 5114. 

" I have discoursed with some within a few days after 
their decease, and because they were then recently come, 
they were in a light there, which differed little in their sight 
from the light of the world. And because the light appeared 
such to them, they doubted whether they had light from any 
other source, wherefore they were taken into the first of hea- 
ven, where the light was still brighter, and from thence speak- 
ing with me, they said, that they had never before seen such 
a light ; and this took place when the sun was already set. 
They then wondered, that spirits had eyes by which they 
saw, when yet they believed in the life of the body, that the 
life of spirits was merely thought, and indeed abstractly with- 
out a subject, by reason that they had not been able to think 
of any subject of thought, inasmuch as they had not seen 
any ; and this being the case, they had not then perceived 
otherwise, than that because it was mere thought alone, it 
was dissipated, together with the body hi which it was, just 
as any aura or any fire, unless it should miraculously be kept 
together and subsist from the Lord. And they saw then how 
easily the learned fall into^ error concerning life after death, 
and that they more than others do not believe except in things 
which they see. Therefore they were surprised now, that 
they not only had thought, but also sight, and likewise the 
other senses ; and especially that they appear to themselves 
altogether as men, that they mutually see and hear each 
other, converse together, feel their own members by the 
touch, and this more exquisitely than in the life of the body. 
Hence they were amazed that man is altogether ignorant of 



116 MESMEP* AND SWEDENBORG. 

this, while he lives in the world ; and they pitied the human 
race, that they know nothing of such things, because they 
believe nothing, and more especially they w T ho are in supe- 
rior light, namely, they who are within the church, and have 
the Word. Some of them believed no otherwise, than that 
men after death w^ould be as ghosts, hi which opinion they 
confirmed themselves from the spectres of which they had 
heard ; but hence they drew no other conclusion, than that 
it was some gross vital principle, which it first exhaled from 
the life of the body, but which again falls back to the dead 
body, and is thus extinguished. But some believed, that 
they were first to rise again at the time of the last judgment, 
wdien the "world was to perish, and then with the body, 
which, though fallen into dust, would be then collected to- 
gether, and thus they would rise again with bone and flesh. 
And whereas mankind have in vain for many ages expected 
that last judgment or destruction of the world, they have fall- 
en into the error that they should never rise again ; thinking 
nothing hi this case of that which they have learned from the 
Word, and from which they have also sometimes so spoken, 
that when man dies, his soul is in the hand of God, among 
the happy or unhappy according to the life which he had 
acquainted himself with, and was become familiar to ; nei- 
ther of what the Lord said concerning the rich man and 
Lazarus. But they were instructed, that every one's last 
judgment is when he dies, and that then he appears to himself 
endowed with a body as hi the world, and to enjoy every 
sense as in the world, but more pure and exquisite, inasmuch 
as corporeal things do not hinder, and those things which 
are of the light of the world do not overshadow those which 
are of the light of heaven ; thus that they are in a body as it 
were purified ; and that after death, the body cannot possi- 
bly partake of what is bony and fleshy such as it had in the 
world, because this would be to be again encompassed with 
earthly dust. With some I conversed on this subject on the 
same day that their bodies were entombed, who saw through 
my eyes their own corpse, the bier, and the ceremony of 
burial"; and they said, that they reject that corpse, and that 
it had served them for uses in the world in which they had 
been, and that they live now in a body which serves them 
for uses in the world in which they now are. They wished 
also, that I should tell this to their relations who w-ere in 
mourning; but it was given to reply, that if I should tell 
them, they would mock at it, inasmuch as what they cannot 
themselves see with their own eyes, they believe to be noth- 
ing, and thus they would reckon" it among the visions which 
are illusions. For thev cannot be brought to believe, that as 



MAGNETIC VISION. 117 

men see each other with their eyes, so spirits see each other 
with theirs, and that man cannot see spirits unless with the 
eyes of his spirits and that he then sees them when the Lord 
opens the internal sight, as was done to the proimets, who 
saw spirits and angels, and also many things of heaven. 
Whether they who live at this day would have believed 
those things, if they had lived at that time, there is room to 
doubt."— A. C 4527. 

" It is surprising that man does not as yet know, that his 
intellectual mind is in a certain light, which is altogether dif- 
ferent from the light of the world : but such is the constitu- 
tion of things, that to those who are in the light of the world, 
the light of heaven is as it were darkness, and to those who 
are in the light of heaven, the light of the world is as it were 
darkness; this arises principally from the loves, which are 
the heats of light ; they who are in the loves of self and of 
the world, thus in the heat only of the light of the world, are 
only affected with evils and falses, and these are the things 
which extinguish truths, which are of the light of heaven ; 
but they who are in love to the Lord and in love towards the 
neighbor, thus in spiritual heat, which is of the light of hea- 
ven, are affected with goods and truths, which extinguish 
falses."— A. C. 3224. 

" That the light of heaven has in itself intelligence and 
wisdom, and that it is the intelligence of truth and the wis- 
dom of good from the Lord, which appears as light before 
the eyes of the angels, has been given me to know by living 
experience. I have been elevated into the light, which glit- 
tered like the light radiating from diamonds ; and while I 
was kept in it, I seemed to myself to be withdrawn from cor- 
poreal ideas, and to be led into spiritual ideas, and thus into 
those things which are of the intelligence of truth and good. 
The ideas of thought, which derived their origin from the 
light of the world, then appeared removed from me, and as 
it were not belonging to me, although they were obscurely 
present. Hence it was given to know, that so far as man 
comes into that light, so far he comes into intelligence. 
Thence it is, that the more intelligent the angels are, in so 
much greater and more illustrious light are they." — A. C. 
4413. 

" Recent souls, or novitiate spirits, namely, those who some 
days after the death of the body come into the other life, are 
greatly surprised that there is light in the other life ; for they 
bring along with them the ignorance that light is from any 



118 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

other source than from the sun, and from material name ; 
and still less do they know, that there is any light which illu- 
minates the understanding, for they have not apperceived 
this in the life of the body ; and still less, that that light gives 
the faculty of thinking, and by influx into the forms which 
are from the light of the world, constitutes all things which 
are of the understanding. These, if they have been good, 
that they may be instructed, are elevated to heavenly socie- 
ties, and from society into society, that they may perceive by 
Irving experience, that in the other life there is light, and this 
more intense than is anywhere given hi the world, and that 
at the same time they may apperceive, that so far as they are 
in the light there, so far they are in intelligence. Some, who 
were taken up into spheres of celestial light, spoke with me 
thence, and confessed that they had never believed anything 
of the kind, and that the light of the world is respectively 
darkness. They also looked thence through my eyes into 
the light of the world, and this they do not perceive other- 
wise than as a dark cloud ; and from commiseration said, 
that man is in such a cloud. From what has been said it 
may also appear, why the celestial angels are in the world 
called angels of light ; and that the Lord is the light and 
thence the life of men. John i. 1 to 9 ; chap. viii. 12." — A. C. 
4415. 

" « Thou God seest me,' — That it signifies influx, may ap- 
pear from what has now been stated. Intuition from the 
superior into the inferior, or, what is the same, from the in- 
terior into the exterior, is called influx, for it is effected by in- 
flux ; as the interior vision with man, unless it flowed con- 
tinually into his external vision, or that of the eye, it would 
be impossible for the latter to take in and discern any object; 
because it is the interior vision which, through the eye, takes 
in those things which the eye sees, and not the eye itself, al- 
though it so appears. Hence also it maybe seen, how much 
that man is involved in the fallacies of the senses, who be- 
lieves that it is the eye that sees, when yet it is the sight of 
his spirit, which is interior sight, that sees through the eye. 
The spirits who were with me saw through my eyes the ob- 
jects of this world, as perfectly as I ; but some of them, who 
were still in the fallacies of the senses, supposed that they 
saw them through their own eyes ; but it was shown them that 
it was not so, for when my eyes were shut they saw nothing 
in this atmospherical world. The case is similar with man : 
it is not the eye which sees, but his spirit through the eye. The 
same may also appear from dreams, in which sometimes 
man sees as in open day. But this is not all : the case is 



MAGNETIC VISION. 119 

similar with this interior sight, or that of the spirit. This 
does not see of itself, but from a vision still more interior, or 
that of its rational : yea neither does this see of itself, but 
there is a sight still more interior, which is that of the inter- 
nal man : but not even does this see of itself: but it is the 
Lord, through the internal man, who alone sees, because he 
alone lives ; and he gives to man that he may see, and that 
it may appear as if he saw from himself. Thus it is in re- 
gard to influx.'*'— -4. C. 1954. 

C{ That the light in the heavens is spiritual, and that that 
light is divine truth, may be concluded also from this, that 
man also has spiritual light, and from that light has illustra- 
tion, as far as he is in intelligence and wisdom from divine 
truth. The spiritual light of man is the light of his under- 
standing, the objects of which are truths, which he dis- 
poses analytically into orders, forms into reasons, and from 
them concludes things in a series. That it is real light, from 
which the understanding sees such things, natural man does 
not know, because he does not see it with the eyes, nor per- 
ceive it with the thought; but many still know it, and also 
distinguish it from natural light, in which those are who 
think naturally and not spiritually: those think naturally, 
who only look into the world and attribute all things to na- 
ture ; but those think spiritually, who look to heaven and at- 
tribute all things to the Divine. That it is true light, which 
enlightens the mind, plainly distinct from the light which is 
called natural light [lumen], has many times been given me to 
perceive, and also to see. I have been elevated into that 
light interiorly by degrees, and as I was elevated, my under- 
standing was enlightened, so that at length I perceived what 
I did not perceive before, and at last such things as I could 
not even comprehend by thought from natural light : I was 
sometimes indignant that they were not comprehended, 
when yet they were clearly and perspicuously perceived in 
heavenly light. Because the understanding has light, there- 
fore the like is said concerning it as concerning the eye, as 
that it sees and is in the light, when it perceives, and that it is 
obscure and in the shade, when it does not perceive ; and 
other like things."— H. § H. 130. 

It must be admitted to be somewhat difficult, accustomed 
as we are to derive our thoughts from the material world, to 
conceive of the relation of Light to the Intellect, though we 
are in the constant use of the same language in a metaphorical 
sense, and though the relation of Heat to Affection is the 



120 MESMER AND SWEDENEORG, 

same. Yet the philosophy is undoubtedly sound, and it is in 
effect recognised by intelligent clairvoyants, for they usually 
say that they do not so much see the objects of their percep- 
tion as linov: them. They find great difficulty in conveying 
to others a precise idea of the nature of their vision, and one 
once remarked to me that though she used the word see, yet 
she wished to have it understood that the process was not 
like that of seeing with the outward eye. She employed the 
term because she knew no other that came 50 near to an ad- 
equate expression of the fact. If Swedenborg has correctly 
developed the theory of the visual sensation of spirits, it ap- 
proximates so nearly to intellection that it is not easy for us to 
draw the distinction, and the case is the same with magnetic 
vision. I am aware it may be said, that we are still left with- 
out any clear conceptions of the rationale of the phenomenon* 
but the inevitable vagueness arises from the nature of the sub- 
ject. Until we have gained a deeper knowledge of the spirit- 
ual hi contradistinction from the material, and of the mode 
of influx from the one into the other, we shall doubtless con- 
tinue to labor under the same difficulty. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CLAIRVOYANCE. 

From the tenor of the preceding chapter it must undoubted- 
ly appear, that the mental relation of the parties in the Mes- 
meric communication is such, that the train of thought in the 
one governs, more or less, that of the other. In virtue of the 
mysterious intercourse established, the mind of the one is led 
by that of the other to the contemplation of whatever scenes 
and objects it is pleased to array before it.* The evidence of 

* The following passage is so pertinent to this point that I an- 
ticipate a little in giving it in this connection, s€ A certain spirit 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 121 

tins, as a matter of fact, is altogether too strong to be resisted, 
and to this extent the claims of what is termed Clairvoyance 
are by multitudes admitted. But hesitation immediately en- 
sues when we go beyond this, and affirm the possibility of a 
sight or perception on the part of the subject entirely trans- 
cending the range of the operator's knowledge or his ac- 
tual imaginings. This, it is said, brings us at once into the 
region of the incredible, as it invests the spirit with the pow- 
er of emerging from the body, and in that state of possessing 
a kind of ubiquitous presence which can only be ascribed to 
the Deity. All objections, however, of this nature must give 
way before the clear evidence of facts, and facts may be adduc- 
ed hi abundance to show that the range of clairvoyant vision 
is not limited by the conceptions of the guiding mind. We do 
not say that this power is capable of being elicited in every 
instance in which the subject gives proof of being cognziant of 
the thoughts of another, and is able to describe the scenes and 
objects on which his mental eye is fixed. But that that which is 
frequently termed the faculty of independent clairvoyance does 
exist, and that incontestable proofs of it are often afforded, we 
affirm without hesitation. Both the private experience and 
the public vouchers of those who are conversant with the 
subject, are rich in testimonies on this head. 

A remarkable form of this power is evinced in , the knowl- 
edge which magnetic subjects when in that state, however 
locally and bodily remote, have of each other. The fact is 
beyond question, as will be attested by all those who are fa- 
miliar with the phenomena, and can only be accounted for 
on the ground of the truth of Swedenborg's assertion, that real 
space is non-existent in the spiritual world, and that nothing 
more is needed to bring spirits into conjunction with each 

was with me, whom I had not known in the life of the body, and 
when I asked him whether he knew whence he was, he did not 
know, but by means of the interior sight he was led by me through 
cities where I had been, and at length through the city whence he 
came, and then through the streets and public squares, all which 
he was acquainted with, and at last to the street where he himself 
dwelt ; and if I had known the houses, how they were situated, I 
mio-ht also have known his house." — A. C. 2485, 



122 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

other than similarity of states coupled with a desire to that ef- 
fect. " It has been given to see how similitude of state con- 
joins and contracts the extension of space or distance, and 
how dissimilitude separates and produces extension of space 
or distance. There they who to appearance are at the distance 
of a thousand miles from each other, can be present in a mo- 
ment when the love of one to the other is excited, and on the 
other hand, they who are discoursing together, can be sep- 
arated in like manner the moment any aversion is excited." 
— AtL Creed, 106. If this is the law of conjunction between 
spirits in the other life, it is not perhaps difficult to conceive 
that it should be somewhat strikingly realized in the case of 
two Mesmeric subjects coming as they do, in good measure, 
into the spiritual sphere. 

Yet it is to be remarked, that the exhibition of the power 
is usually governed by some hidden laws that have reference 
to use. The phenomena are perhaps most frequently evinc- 
ed in cases where the object is to indicate the nature or the 
cure of disease. Nothing is more common than to submit to 
a subject the case of one, removed it may be to the distance 
of hundreds of miles, who is laboring under any particular 
malady, which however is not known in any of its particu- 
lars, to the consulter, but which he wishes to have investigat- 
ed. A correct report is often made of such cases, and that with- 
out the slightest previous knowledge of the person or his ail- 
ment — a fact which cannot be accounted for but upon the 
supposition of some kind of going forth of the spirit, which at 
the same time is not incompatible with its still adhering to the 
body to which it belongs. The mind of the clairvoyant does 
undoubtedly in some way come in contact with the essential 
being of the person in question, and through that is made 
acquainted with the condition of the material organism, 
which stands in indissoluble relation to the soul that per- 
vades and animates it. That there is an actual cognizance 
of the individual thus spiritually visited is evident from 
the fact that when such a person is subsequently brought 
into the presence of the clairvoyant when in the Mesmeric 
state, he will immediately recognise him as one whom he 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 123 

has seen before, and will minutely describe all the par- 
ticulars of the previous vision. We by no means affirm 
that these phenomena occur with every clairvoyant, but they 
nevertheless occur, as I have often witnessed, and more es- 
pecially if the Mesmeric seer is furnished with a lock of hair, 
or any article of dress or ornament worn upon the person of 
the other party, which may serve as a medium for establish- 
ing the mysterious communication between them. The fact 
is doubtless very astonishing, but is rendered much more 
credible by Swedenborg's teachings respecting the nature of 
spirits and the modes of their intercourse, a porti©n of which 
we shall soon present to the reader. 
But the first step is to adduce evidence of the fact. 

" For six years I have made repeated trials with numerous 
patients of my own : but never have found one who I was 
satisfied could even see the objects about them with the eyes 
closed, or look into the interior of the bodies of others and 
state their condition and prescribe for them. But among my 
searches after clairvoyance I have at length found one exam- 
ple of the highest kind, just mentioned in the last paragraph, 
though she disclaims all clairvoyance of the inferior kind 
mentioned in the present paragraph. This patient is the per- 
fection of integrity and every other moral excellence. Her 
•word is a fact : and her truth is not less absolute than her 
freedom from vanity. She dislikes to exert her clairvoyance, 
and though, I have no doubt, long possessed of it, never men- 
tioned it till I tried and urged her to exert it : nor would she 
ever exert it but from a desire to oblige me, nor does she if 
aware of the presence of others. 

66 She will accurately describe who are in a particular room 
at her father's house at a particular moment, and the arrange- 
ment of the furniture, &c. — a distance of above fifty miles : 
or she will search for and see a member of her family, and 
describe the place in which he or she is, and the others also 
present. I at length succeeded in prevailing upon her to see 
some others, not members of her family, or known to them 
or to herself, and whose names even I did not mention, but 
only a very few particulars about them. She has described 
their persons most accurately, the places in which they were, 
their occupations at the moment ; and told what others were 
in the same room with them : and all this when I knew no- 
thing of the truth at the time, and had to verify it afterwards.' 
Far more than this she would tell : and tell with perfect ac- 



124 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

curacy: and predict numerous things relating to others 
which have since exactly taken place. But I will not ven- 
ture to add more at present. I am anything but supersti- 
tious ; am indeed very skeptical of human testimony on all 
matters of a wonderful nature : but these points I have labo- 
riously and rigidly looked into, and can speak positively. In 
exerting this power, she knits her brows and wrinkles her 
forehead vertically, evidently making a great cerebral exer- 
tion. The part at which she says she sees, so to speak, clair- 
voyantly, is the centre of the forehead, midway between 
the temples, but a little lower than half-way between the 
root of the nose and the top of the forehead, — exactly at the 
spot called by some cerebral physiologists the organ of 
Eventuality. 

" I need hardly say that in perceiving absent, and distant 
persons and things, it makes no difference what may be the 
direction of her face. Her seat may be placed against any of 
the walls of the room without altering her ability. 

" Whether from her being in a very delicate state of health 
or not, she exerts the power with great effort, and often re- 
quires repeated efforts in the same direction at successive 
sittings before she sees what I desire her to see. Any tem- 
porary increase of debility, any headache, or other distress- 
ing sensation, or the slightest uncomfortable emotion, prevents 
its exertion to much purpose or altogether. Before she could 
discern persons who are strangers to her, many attempts for 
very many days were required. She then saw them more 
clearly every day. Sometimes she can see persons but for 
an instant at a time : and sometimes not more than once in 
this momentary manner during my visit. She seldom saw 
the whole of a room at once." — The Zoist, Vol. II. p. 478-481. 

" Mademoiselle W., whose disease and its treatment have 
been minutely reported by Dr. Klein, her physician, appears 
to have been one of the most extraordinary natural somnam- 
bulists and clairvoyants upon record. The following facts 
concerning her, which Dr. Klein has slightly alluded to from 
motives of delicacy towards the family, are related in the 
third volume of the Bibliotheque du Magnetisme Animal, by an 
eye-witness who is worthy of all credit. 

" After Mademoiselle W. had arrived at the house of M. 

St. , a respectable and opulent man, whose family is one 

of the most distinguished in the country, this gentlemen, who 
had previously heard of the accidental somnambulism of this 
young lady, looked upon her as a very extraordinary person, 
and requested her to give him, as she had already done on 
several former occasions, some proofs of the accuracy and 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 125 

extent of her magnetic telescope, and to direct it towards his son, 
an officer in the army, at that time serving in Russia. From 
that moment, Mademoiselle W. directed her thoughts to this 
young man, and in all her paroxysms, although she had 
never seen him, she drew his portrait exactly as if she had 
him before her eyes. She said that he was constantly pre- 
sent to her mind — she accompanied him in all his military 
movements, and observed that, naturally brave, he exposed 
himself too inconsiderately to danger. She frequently asked 
the sister of this young officer, whether she did not see him 
in a corner of the room ; and, one day, upon receiving a 
negative answer, she said, 6 Well, then, ask him any ques- 
tions you please, and I shall return his answers.' The sis- 
ter, having consented, asked all sorts of questions relative to 
family matters, which were unknown to the somnambulist, 
who answered them all in a manner so precise and so accu- 
rate, that the interrogator afterwards declared that she felt 
herself seized with a cold perspiration, and was several times 
on the point of fainting with fright, during what she called 
the dialogue of the spirits. 

" In another scene, the somnambulist declared to the fath- 
er, that she saw his son at the hospital, with a piece of white 
linen wrapt round his chin — that he was wounded in the 
face — that he was unable to eat, but, at the same time, that 
he was in no danger. Some days later, she said that he was 
now able to eat, and that he was much better. 

" The family soon ceased to pay much attention to these 
visions, probably putting little faith in them, when, some 
weeks afterwards, a courier arrived from the army. M. St. 
immediately went to Count Th. to inquire what news he had 
received. The latter, at once, set his mind completely at 
ease, by informing him that his son's name was not in the 
list of the wounded, &c. Transported with joy, he returned 
home, and said to Mademoiselle W., who was, at that time, 
in her somnambulic sleep, that, for once, she had not divined 
accurately, and that, fortunately for his son and himself, she 
had been completely deceived. At these words — divined, 
deceived — the young lady felt much offended, and, in an angry 
and energetic tone, assured the father that she was quite cer- 
tain of the truth of what she had said — that, at the very mo- 
ment, she saw his son at the hospital with his chin wrapt hi 
white linen, and that, in the state in which she then was, it 
was quite impossible she could be deceived. Soon after- 
wards, there came a note from Count Th. ; which, after some 
expressions of politeness and condolence, contained the fol- 
lowing intelligence. That a second list of the wounded had 
arrived, in which was the name of his son, who had been 



126 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

struck by a musket-ball on the chin, and was under medical 
treatment in the hospital, &c. 

" According to my information, the veracity of the persons, 
upon whose authority the preceding narrative has been 
given, lies under no suspicion." — his Revelata, Vol. II. , p. 
93-96. 

i( Madame Bussiere, being magnetised at eleven o'clock in 
the morning, told me that she was better — but that she could 
not think about herself — having something upon her mind, 
Which distracted her thoughts ; and not being able to see the 
cause of this presentiment, she asked me to assist her. I did 
so by the means usually employed under such circumstan- 
ces. She retired within herself: — an instant afterwards she 
burst into tears, and said to me, 'I see my brother-in law, 
who is at Libourne : he has inflammation of the lungs ; his 
wife wrote to me yesterday to inform me of this event, and 
the letter will arrive this evening : — she requests me to go to 
Libourne.' After a minute's silence ; ' I am unwell, and Ifear 
that this letter, when it arrives, will make me worse. I beg 
of you, on my awaking, to inform me of this, but with cau- 
tion ; especially tell me, that I dare not be absent at the most 
more than twelve days, because I shall require to be mag- 
netised from that period until the next constitutional crisis, 
which will be the last. I cannot tell you on what day it will 
happen ; I cannot see this till the evening before. 3 

"Having awakened her, I did as she had directed me, in- 
sisting strongly on the necessity of her returning on the 26th, 
on account of her health. 

" In the evening her husband sent me the letter announced 
during her sleep ; its contents were precisely those which 
Madame Bussiere had told me." — Newnham's An. Mag. p. 277- 
278. 

Cases of a similar character to the foregoing could be easi- 
ly multiplied, but to the skeptic they would probably be un- 
availing, and to the believer useless. Our object will have 
been answered if we have succeeded in presenting the evi- 
dence of a mental phenomenon, which finds its solution in 
the parallel developments of Swedenborg. Our drift is all 
along to explain facts by laws. The facts may be doubted or 
denied by those who have witnessed nothing like them, but 
we have much less solicitude for those who deny the facts 
than for those who, upon satisfactory proof, admit the facts, 
but have hitherto been ignorant of the laws, It will be seen 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 127 

from what follows that nothing more is developed in the facts 
than the laws of spiritual existence give us reason to antici- 
pate. Everything involved in the phenomena rests upon the 
grand principle, that "man is a spirit as to his interiors/ 5 and 
that his spiritual nature in the body often manifests itself ac 
cording to the laws which govern it out o/the body. 

" The spirits who are thought of by others (as those who 
have been in any degree acquainted together during the life 
of the body) are present in a moment, when it is granted by 
the Lord, and so very near that they can hear and touch each 
other, or at any little distance, notwithstanding they might 
have been thousands of miles distant, yea, even at the stars ; 
the reason is, because distance of place does not operate in 
the other life."— A. C. 1274. 

" All conjunction in the spiritual world is done by looking : 
when any one there thinks concerning another from an affec- 
tion of speaking with him, the other becomes present on the 
spot ; and one sees the other face to face : the like is done 
when any one thinks concerning another from an affection of 
love ; by this affection conjunction takes place, but only 
presence takes place by the other : this is peculiar to the 
spiritual world : the reason is, because all there are spiritual ; 
it is otherwise in the natural world in which all are material : 
in the natural world the like takes place with men in the af- 
fections and thoughts of their spirit ; but because in the na- 
tural world there are spaces, but in the spiritual world spaces 
are only appearances, therefore in the latter world that takes 
place actually which takes place m the thought of any spirit/ 5 
— B. P. 29. 

" Since angels and spirits are affections which are of love, 
and thoughts thence, therefore neither are they in space and 
time, but only in the appearance of them : the appearance of 
space and time is to them according to the states of the af- 
fections and thence of the thoughts : wherefore, when any 
one thinks about another from affection, with the intention 
that he wishes to see him, or to speak with him, he is set forth- 
with present. Hence it is, that spirits are present with every 
man, who are in like affection with him ; evil spirits with him 
who is in the affection of like evil, and good spirits with him 
who is in the affection of like good : and they are so present, 
as when one is included in society : space and time make 
nothing towards presence, for the reason that affection and 
thence thought are not in space and time ; and spirits and 



128 MESMER AND SWEBENBORG. 

angels are affections and thence thoughts. That it is so, has 
been given to know from a living experience of many years; 
and also from this, that I have spoken with many after death, 
as well with those who are in Europe and its various king- 
doms, as with those who were in Asia and Africa and their 
various kingdoms ; and they "were all near me; wherefore, if 
there had been space and time to them, journeying and the 
time of journeying would have intervened. Yea, every man 
knows this from what is implanted in himself or in his mind ; 
which became evidenced to me by this, that no one thought 
of any distance of space, when I related what I have spoken 
with any one deceased in Asia, Africa, or Europe ; as, for ex- 
ample, with Calvin, Luther, Melancthon, or with any king, 
officer, or priest, in a distant country ; and it did not at all 
fall into their thoughts, how one could speak with those who 
lived there, and how they could come to and be present with 
him, when yet lands and seas intervene : from this it has also 
been manifest to me, that no one thinks from space and time, 
when he thinks concerning those who are in the spiritual 
world."— D. P. 50. 

"Although all things in heaven appear in place and in 
space just as in the world, still the angels have no notion and 
idea of place and space. Because this cannot but appear as 
a paradox, I wish to present the subject in a clear light, be- 
cause it is of great importance. 

" All progressions in the spiritual world are made by 
changes of the state of the interiors, so that progressions are 
nothing else than changes of state ; thus also I have been 
conducted by the Lord into the heavens, and likewise to the 
earths in the universe, and this as to the spirit, while the 
body remained in the same place. Thus all the angels move ; 
hence to them there are no distances, and if there are not 
distances, neither are there spaces, but instead of them states 
and their changes. 

" Because progressions are made thus, it is evident that 
approximations are similitudes as to the state of the interiors, 
and that removals are dissimilitudes. Thence it is that those 
are near to each other who are in a similar state, and those 
at a distance, who are in a dissimilar state ; and that spaces 
in heaven are nothing else than external states corresponding 
to internal. It is from no other source that the heavens are 
distinct from each other, and also the societies of each heaven, 
and every one in the society. Thence likewise it is, that the 
hells are entirely separated from the heavens, because they 
are in a contrary state. 

M From this cause also it is, that in the spiritual world one 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 129 

is exhibited as present to another, if he only intensely desires 
his presence, for thus he sees him in thought, and puts him- 
self in his state ; and conversely, that one is removed from 
another as far as he is averse to him. And because all aver- 
sion is from contrariety of the affections and from disagree- 
ment of the thoughts, thence it comes to pass, that several 
who are in one place there appear to each other so long as 
they agree, but as soon as they disagree they disappear." — 
H. fy H. 191-194. 

i( Interior sight in the spiritual world conjoins ; interior 
sight is thought, and in a society there, when several act as 
one, and also in choirs, what one thinks another also thinks, 
thus thought conjoins ; and likewise when any one thinks 
of another, he is presented to view, thus also thought con- 
joins." — A. C. 5975. 

" Man at this day, to whom the interiors are closed, knows 
nothing of those things which exist in the spiritual world or 
heaven: he says indeed from the Word and from doctrine, 
that there is a heaven, and that the angels, who are there, are 
in joy and in glory, and he knows nothing besides. He 
wishes indeed to know how the case is there, but when he is 
told, he still believes nothing, by reason that in heart he de- 
nies the existence of such things : when he wishes to know, 
it is only because then he is in curiosity from doctrine, not in 
delight from faith ; and they who are not in faith, deny also 
in heart. But they who believe, procure to themselves ideas 
concerning heaven, its joy and glory, from various things, 
every one from such things as are of his own science and in- 
telligence ; and the simple from sensitive things which are of 
the body. 

t; Nevertheless most persons do not apprehend that spirits 
and angels have sensations much more exquisite than men 
in the world ; namely, sight, hearing, smelling, something 
analogous to taste, and touch, and especially the delights of 
the affections. If they had only believed that their interior 
essence was a spirit, and that the body, together with its sen- 
sations and members, is only adequate to uses in the world, 
and that the spirit and its sensations and organs are adequate 
to uses in the other life, then they would come of themselves 
and almost spontaneously into ideas concerning the state of 
their spirits after death. For then they would think with 
themselves, that his spirit is the very man himself who thinks, 
and who lusts, who desires aud is affected, and further that 
all the sensitive, which appears in the body, is properly of 
its spirit, and of the body only by influx : and these things 



130 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

they would afterwards confirm with themselves by many 
things, and thus at length would be delighted with those 
things which are of their spirit, more than with those which 
are of their body. In reality also this is the case, that it is 
not the body which sees, hears, smells, feels, but its spirit; 
wherefore when the spirit is freed from the body, it is then 
in its own sensations, in which it had been when in the body, 
and indeed in those much more exquisite; for corporeal 
things, because respectively gross, rendered the sensations 
obtuse, and still more obtuse, because it immersed them in 
earthly and worldly things. 

"This I can assert, that a spirit has much more exquisite 
sight than a man in the body, and also hearing, and what 
will seem surprising, more exquisite sense of smell, and 
especially sense of touch, for they see each other, hear 
each other, and touch each other. This also he who be- 
lieves a life after death, might conclude from this, that no 
life can be given without sense, and that the quality of the 
life is according to the quality of the sense ; yea, that the 
intellectual is DOthing but an exquisite sense of interior 
things, and the superior intellectual of spiritual things ; hence 
also the things which are of the intellectual and of its per- 
ceptions are called the internal senses. With the sensitive of 
man immediately after death, the case is this. As soon as 
man dies, and the corporeal things with him grow cold, he 
is raised up into life, and then into the state of all sensations, 
insomuch that at first he scarcely knows otherwise than that 
he is still in the body ; for the sensations in 'which he is, lead 
him so to believe. But when he perceives that he has more 
exquisite sensations, and this especially when he begins to 
speak with other spirits, he then takes notice that he is in 
another life, and that the death of his body was the continua- 
tion of the life of his spirit. I have spoken with two with 
whom I had been acquainted, on the same day that they 
were buried, and with one who saw through my eyes his 
own coffin and bier, and inasmuch as he was in every sen- 
sation in which he had been in the world, he talked with 
me about the obsequies, when I was following his funeral, 
and also about his body, saying, that they reject it because 
he himself lives. 

" But it is to be known, that they who are in the other life, 
cannot see anything which is in the world through the eyes 
of any man ; the reason why they could see through my eyes 
was, because I am in the spirit with them, and at the same 
time in the body with those who are in the world. And it is 
further to be known, that I did not see those with whom I dis- 
coursed in the other life, with the eyes of my body, but with 
the eyes of my spirit, and still as clearly, and sometimes more 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 131 

clearly than with the eyes of my body, for, by the divine 
mercy of the Lord, the things which are of my spirit have been 
opened. 

" But I am aware that the things which have been hereto- 
fore said, will not be believed by those who are immersed in 
corporeal, terrestial, and worldly things, that is, by such of 
them as hold those things for an end, for these have no ap- 
prehension of other things than those which are dissipated by 
death. I am aware also, that neither will they believe, who 
have thought and inquired much about the soul, and have 
not at the same time comprehended that the soul is man's 
spirit, and that his spirit is his very man which lives in the 
body. For these cannot conceive any other notion about the 
soul, than that it is something cogitative, or flamy, or ethere- 
al, which only acts into the organic forms of the body, and not 
into the purer forms which are of its spirit in the body, and thus 
such that it is dissipated with the body ; and this is especial- 
ly the case with those, who have confirmed themselves in 
such notions by views puffed up by the persuasion of their 
own superior wisdom." — A. C. 4622. 

" The divine omnipresence may be illustrated by the won- 
derful presence of angels and spirits in the spiritual world. 
In this world, because there is no space, but only an appear- 
ance of space, an angel or a spirit may, in a moment, become 
present to another, provided he comes into a similar affection 
of love, and thence thought, for these two make the appear- 
ance of space. That such is the presence of all there, was 
manifest to me from this, that I could see Africans and Indians 
there very near me, although they are so many miles dis- 
tant upon earth ; nay, that I could become present to those 
who are in other planets of this system, and also to those 
who are in the planets in other systems, out of this solar sys- 
tem. By virtue of this presence, not of place, but of the ap- 
pearance of place, lhave conversed with apostles, deceased 
popes, emperors and kings ; with the founders of the present 
church, Luther, Calvin, Melancthon ; and with others from dis- 
tant countries. Since such is the presence of angels and spi- 
rits, what limits can be set to the Divine presence in the uni- 
verse, which is infinite! The reason that angels and spirits 
have such presence, is, because every affection of love, and 
thence every thought of the understanding, is in space with- 
out space, and in time without time ; for any one can think 
of a brother, relation or friend in the Indies, and then have 
him, as it were, present to him ; in like manner, he may be 
affected with their love by recollection. By these things, be- 
cause they are familiar to every one, the divine omnipresence 



132 MESMER AND SWEDEN BORG, 

may, in some degree, be illustrated ; and also by human 
thoughts, as, when any one recalls to his remembrance what 
he has seen upon a journey in various places, he is, as it 
were, present at those places. Nay, the sight of the body 
emulates that same presence ; the eye does not perceive dis- 
tances, except by intermediate objects, which, as it were, 
measure them. The sun itself would be near the eye, nay, 
in the eye, unless intermediate objects discovered that it is so 
distant : that it is so, writers on optics have also observed in 
their books. Such presence has each sight of man, both in- 
tellectual and corporeal, because his spirit sees through his 
eyes."-— T. C. R. 64. 

With these citations before us, "what doubt can possibly re- 
main, that Swedenborg has developed the rationale of the 
manifestations of which we are now treating ? Is not the 
parallelism as obvious as the facts ? and are not the facts sus- 
tained by competent testimony ? Our appeal, however, is to 
those who admit the facts, and to all such we propose the 
query, whether the evidence is not conclusive, that Sweden- 
borg has penetrated the mystery of these startling phenom- 
ena ? Has he not lifted the curtain and exposed to view the 
spiritual machinery, so to speak, upon which these marvel- 
lous results depend ? Here are adequate causes assigned for 
obvious effects, and what is the ground, we ask, on which 
Swedenborg is to be written a dreaming visionary, merely for 
affirming a psychology which completely solves the problems 
of experience ? Surely, if we behold in Mesmerism phenom- 
ena which irresistibly refer themselves to a spiritual world — 
if we admit that such a world exists — if the mind of man 
were while sojourning in the body, is really a denizen of that 
world — then we feel at liberty to claim that Swedenborg has 
been admitted into it, and has laid open its hidden laws. 
How could such a claim be substantiated otherwise than by 
the very evidence which is set before our eyes, to wit, the 
accordance of known facts with the asserted law? 

We may here advert to another phase of the Mesmeric 
marvels of a similar character to the preceding. It is known 
that clairvoyant subjects are sometimes sent on an ideal ex- 
cursion to the moon or to the various planets of the system. 
As to the accuracy of their reports we have nothing to say, 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 133 

for we have no doubt that, owing to causes which Sweden- 
borg has also unfolded, there is frequently a large admixture 
of the fanciful and the illusive in the impressions received by: 
Mesmeric subjects. This circumstance, however, does not 
countervail the equally clear evidence of truth in regard to 
many of their statements, and in the present case we have to 
do with the simple possibility of the thing itself. Does the 
clairvoyant state enable one to visit mentally the distant re- 
gions of the universe ? It is not, perhaps, easy to limit the 
capability disclosed in the foregoing extracts. If mind or 
spirit really rises superior to all relation to space — if the sole 
condition of being present to another person in any part of 
the globe be the wish to that effect — then we may doubtless 
conceive that by the same law one may be transported, so 
to speak, to the remotest bounds of creation. On this sub- 
ject Swedenborg speaks as follows : 

" They who are in heaven can discourse and converse 
with angels and spirits, who are not only from the earths in 
this solar system, but also from other earths in the universe 
out of this system ; and not only with the spirits and angels 
there, but also with the inhabitants themselves, only, how- 
ever, with those whose interiors are open, so that they can 
hear such as speak from heaven : the same is the case with 
man, during his abode in the world, to whom it has been 
given of the Lord to discourse with spirits and angels ; for 
man is a spirit as to his interiors, the body which he carries 
about in the world only serving him for the performing func- 
tions in this natural or terrestrial sphere, which is the ultimate 
of all spheres. But it is given to no one to discourse as a spi- 
rit with angels and spirits, unless he be such that he can con- 
sociate with angels as to faith and love ; nor can he so con- 
sociate, unless he have faith and love to the Lord, for man 
is joined to the Lord by faith and love to him, that is by 
truths of doctrine and good principles of life derived from 
him ; and when he is joined to the Lord, he is secure from 
the assaults of evil spirits from hell : with others the interi- 
ors cannot be so far opened, since they are not in the Lord. 
This is the reason why there are few at this day, to whom 
it is given to speak and converse with angels ; a manifest 
proof whereof is, that the existence of spirits and angels is 
scarce believed at this day, much less that they are attend- 
ant on every man, and that by them man has connection 
with heaven, and by heaven with the Lord ; still less is it 
7 



134 MESMER AND SWEDENBC-RG. 

believed, that man, when he dies as to the body, lives a spi- 
rit, even in a human form as before. 

" Inasmuch as there are many at this dayjn the church 
who have no faith concerning a life after death, and scarce 
any concerning heaven, or concerning the Lord as being the 
God of heaven and earth, therefore the interiors appertaining 
to my spirit are open by the Lord, so that I am enabled, dar- 
ing my abode in the body, to have commerce with the an- 
gels in heaven, and not only to discourse with them, but also 
to see the astonishing things of their kingdom, and to describe 
the same, in order to check from henceforth the cavils of 
those who urge, ' Did ever any one come from heaven and 
assure us that such a place exists, and acquaint us with what 
is doing there ? ' Nevertheless I am aware, that they who in 
heart have heretofore denied a heaven and a hell, and a life 
after death, will even still continue in the obstinacy of unbe- 
lief and denial ; for it is easier to make a raven white, than 
to make those believe, who have once in heart rejected faith; 
the reason is, because such persons always think about mat- 
ters of faith from a negative principle, and not from an affir- 
mative. May the things, however, which have been hither- 
to declared, and which we have further to declare, concern- 
ing angels and spirits, be for the use of those few who are 
principled in faith ! whilst it is permitted, in order to bring 
others to somewhat of acknowledgment, to relate such par- 
ticulars, as delight and engage the attention of persons desi- 
rous of knowledge ; for which purpose we shall now pro- 
ceed to give an account of the earths in the starry heaven." 
— Earths in the Universe, p. 123-124. 

" I was led by angels from the Lord to a certain earth in 
the starry heaven, where it was given to take a view of the 
earth itself, yet not to speak with the inhabitants, but with 
spirits who came from thence (for all the inhabitants or men 
of every earth, after finishing their course of life in the world, 
become spirits, and remain near their own earth) : from these 
however 1 received information concerning the earth, and 
concerning the state of the inhabitants thereof; for men, 
when they leave the body, carry with them all their former 
life, and all their memory. To be led to earths in the uni- 
verse, is not to be led and translated thither as to the body, 
but as to the spirit, and the spirit is led by variations of the 
state of interior life, which appear to it as progressions 
through spaces. Approaches, or near advancements, are 
also effected according to agreements or resemblances of 
states of life, for agreement or resemblance produces con- 
junction, whereas disagreement and dissimilitude produces 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 135 

disjunction. Hence it may appear how translation is effect- 
ed as to the spirit, and its approach or near advancement to 
things remote, whilst the man still remains in his own place. 
But to lead a spirit, by variations of the state of its interiors, 
out of its own orb, and to cause the variations successively 
to advance even to a state agreeing with or like to those to 
whom it is led, is in the power of the Lord alone ; for there 
must be a continual direction and foresight from first to last, 
both in advancing and returning back again ; especially when 
the translation is to be effected with a man, who is still, as to 
the body, in the natural world, and thereby in space. That 
such a translation has been effected, will appear incredible to 
those who are immersed in the sensual corporeal life, and 
whose thoughts originate in sensual corporeal things, nor 
can they be induced to believe it ; the reason is, because the 
sensual corporeal life cannot conceive of progression with- 
out space ; but they who think from the sensual principle of 
their spirit, somewhat removed or withdrawn from the sen- 
sual principle of the body, consequently who think from an 
interior principle in themselves, may be induced to believe 
and to conceive it, since in the idea of interior thought there 
is neither space nor time, but instead thereof the original 
principles whence spaces and times had birth. For the use 
of these latter the following account is written respecting the 
earths in the starry heaven, and not for the former, (viz. such 
as are immersed in the sensual corporeal life^) unless they 
be in a state to suffer themselves to be instructed." — E. U. 
127. 

" Those who are in heaven can discourse and converse 
with angels and spirits, who are not only from the earths in 
this sojar system, but also with those who are from earths in 
the universe out of this system ; and not only with spirits 
and angels thence, but also with the inhabitants themselves 
whose interiors have been opened, so as to be able to hear 
those who speak from heaven. A similar privilege is grant- 
ed to man, during his life in the world, to whom it has been 
given by the Lord to discourse with spirits and angels, for 
man is a spirit and angel as to his interiors, the body which 
he carries about with him in the world serving him only for 
functions in this natural or terrestrial sphere, which is the ul- 
timate. But it is given to no one as a spirit and angel to 
speak with angels and spirits, unless he be of such a quality 
that he can consociate with them as to faith and love ; nor 
can he consociate unless the faith be directed to the Lord and 
the love to the Lord, inasmuch as man by faith in Him, thus 
by truths of doctrine, and by^love to Him, is conjoined, and 



136 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

when he is conjoined to Him, he is secure from the insult of 
evil spirits who are from hell. With others the interiors can- 
not be opened at all, for they are not in the Lord. This is 
the reason why there are few at this day, to whom it is given 
to discourse and converse with angels; a manifest proof of 
which circumstance is, that it is scarcely believed at this day 
that spirits and angels are, still less that they are attendant 
upon every man, and that by them man hath connexion with 
heaven, and through heaven with the Lord ; and that it is 
still less believed that man when he dies as to the body, lives 
a spirit, also hi a human form as before." — A. C. 9438. 

" The reason may indeed be declared why going, journey- 
ing, and sojourning have such significations, but that reason 
is such, that it can hardly be received by those who do not 
know how the case is with motions in the other life. Mo- 
tions there and progressions, are nothing else, because from 
no other source, than changes of state of the life, which 
changes appear in externals altogether as progressions from 
place to place : that this is so, may be confirmed from much 
experience in the other life ; for I have walked there in spi- 
rit with the inhabitants, and among them, through several of 
their abodes, and this notwithstanding I had remained in the 
same place as to the body. I have also discoursed with 
them as to how this could be, and have been instructed, that 
there are changes of the state of the life, which cause pro- 
gressions in the spiritual "world ; which was also confirmed 
by this, that spirits, by changes induced in the state, can be 
presented on high, and in a moment in the deep, also far 
westward, and in a moment eastward, and so forth. But, as 
was said, this cannot fail to appear strange to him, who 
knows nothing concerning life in the spiritual world ; for in 
that world there are not spaces, nor times, but instead of them 
states of the life ; these states in externals produce an appear- 
ance altogether living of progressions and of motions ; this 
appearance is as living and real as is the appearance of life 
itself, namely, that life is in us, and thus ours, when yet it 
flows in from the Lord, who is the fountain whence conies 
the all" of life."— A. C. 5605. 

" All progressions in the spiritual world are made by 
changes of the state of the interiors, so that progressions are 
nothing else than changes of state : thus also I have been 
conducted by the Lord into the heavens, and likewise to the 
earths in the universe, and this as to the spirit, while the 
body remained in the same place. Thus all the angels move ; 
hence to them there are no distances, and if there are not 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 137 

distances, neither are there spaces, but instead of them states 
and their changes." — H. Sf H. 192. 

The absolute truth of the revelations made in this depart- 
ment cannot, of course, except in the case of Swedenborg, 
be the ground of much confidence. As to him, we rest in 
the assurance of his reliability, because he has clearly de- 
veloped the law which ascertains the possibility of the fact, 
and because he has given so much evidence of truthfulness 
in other respects. As to others, we confide in their reports 
only so far as they agree with his. As a general fact, how- 
ever, we deem their statements of little value, from the cir- 
cumstance that we are convinced their state is one which 
renders them liable to numberless involuntary delusions from 
sources which Swedenborg has fully disclosed. 

On the whole it must, we think, be admitted, that the 
phenomena of Mesmerism, taken in conjunction with the de- 
velopments of Swedenborg,^ open a new chapter in the phi- 
losophy of mind and in man's relation to a higher sphere. 
It would seem that the veil was about being removed which 
has hitherto shrouded in darkness the deep arcana of the 
spirit- world. We awake with amazement to the conviction 
that what have hitherto been regarded as the wildest vaga- 
ries of a disordered fancy are in fact assuming the character 
of the most profound psychological truths. But what are 
these disclosures, sublime as they are, compared with the an- 
nouncements of this enlightened seer relative to the great moral 
doctrines which he has promulgated from the same sphere, 
and which take hold at once of the psychological nature, the 
most sacred duties, and the eternal destiny of man ! Nothing 
that we have thus far brought to view in the foregoing ex- 
tracts can give the reader any adequate idea of the magnifi- 
cent system of moral truth embodied in his writings. We 
can only say of it that it is quite as far in advance of the the- 
ology, as it is of the philosophy, of the world, and more it 
would not be easy to say. Yet we say this well aware that 
the same causes which have hitherto prevented, and will 
probably still prevent, except to a limited extent, the admis- 
sion of the truth of the philosophy, will doubtless operate, 



138 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

for some time to come, to prevent the recognition of the truth 
of the theology. It is not only in too obvious antagonism 
with the favorite dogmas of the church, but it is too pure, 
too holy, too heavenly — it makes too uncompromising de- 
demands upon life — it discovers heaven and hell in too close 
proximity with the human heart in its ruling loves — to allow 
the hope of its general reception till the movements of the 
Divine Providence have wrought stupendous changes in the 
state of the general mind of Christendom. The reign of an 
overspreading sensualism must first be shaken to its centre, 
before the plea of a spiritual philosophy can gain a hearing 
But it would prove us recreant to the solemn interests of 
Truth did we permit ourselves to despair of its final triumphs. 
It will eventually come with resistless rebuke to all the falsi- 
ties which have opposed its progress and laden with abun- 
dance of blessing to its humble and hearty recipients. 



CHAPTER VII. 



MAGNETIC HEARING. 



The condition of all the senses is materially affected by the 
Magnetic process. The results connected with vision are 
perhaps the most remarkable and astounding, but the phe- 
nomena developed in regard to the auditory functions in that 
state are very striking. As a general fact, the subject be- 
comes insensible to any sound except that of the voice of 
the magnetizer or of the party in communication. His slight- 
est tones are audible, and even his whisper, and that too 
from a distance at which it could not be heard in his wak- 
ing state. All attempts by others to awaken him — even 
the loudest shoutings or the report of a pistol close by the 
ear — have for the most part no effect. Yet a single word 
from the operator will often suffice to break the spell of som- 



MAGNETIC HEARING. 139 

nolence and restore the sleeper to his waking consciousness. 
Cases indeed occasionally occur in which the state of mag- 
netic isolation is so complete, that even the word of the op- 
erator himself fails to be heard, and when all intercourse is as 
effectually precluded with him as with others. But as a gen- 
eral fact, there is no impediment to the most free and familiar 
converse with the individual, whether the magnetizer or an- 
other, with whom the subject is in communication, while to 
others the organ of hearing seems to be hermetically sealed. 
Yet it is obvious that the effect produced by the percussion 
of the air on the tympanum of the ear is the same in the case 
of those with whom he is not in communication as of those 
with whom he is. Yet the one is heard while the other is not. 

"Upon first passing into the mesmeric state, Theodore seem- 
ed absolutely insensible to every other than the mesmerizer's 
voice. Some of our party went close to him and shouted his 

name, but he gave no tokens of hearing us until Mr. K , 

taking our hands, made us touch those of Theodore and his 
own at the same time. This he called putting us 'en rapport' 
with the patient. After this Theodore seemed to hear our 
voices equally with that of the mesmerizer, but by no means 
to pay an equal attention to them." — Townshend, p. 57. 

" Even after having been placed c en rapport' with all pre- 
sent, the patient seemed incapable of hearing any voice but 
mine, unless the person who spoke were in actual contact 
with me and with herself at the same time. On one occa- 
sion, when I was asking her if she knew what some object 
was that I held before her, her father told her very loudly 
that it was a wine-glass (which it actually was), but the pa- 
tient did not profit by the intelligence ; for, on being again 
questioned, she said impatiently, * I do not know; I cannot 
tell.' Her name, shouted closed to her ear by different mem- 
bers of her family, seemed to make no impression whatever 
upon her organs of hearing ; while, on the contrary, she at- 
tended to the slightest word that I addressed to her." — Town- 
shend, p. 77. 

" In proportion as persons sink deeper into mesmeric sleep- 
waking, their external senses seem blunted, one by one, and 
so far there is certainly a relation between the mesmeric and 
the natural sleep. The eye, as we have seen, yields, first to 
the slumbrous influence. Long after this organ has ceased to 
act, the hearing retains all its acuteness, and the sleep waker 



140 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

is able to indicate what sounds are going on around ; but at 
length the 'porches of the ear ' are closed as well as the ' cur- 
tain of the eye,' and the patient, though still alive to feeling, 
is dead to every sound save that of the mesmerizer's voice. 
I have proved this times innumerable ; so frequently, indeed, 
that is better to give the general results of the experiments I 
have witnessed than to state one in particular. Often have 
the members of my family, or visiters, who, perhaps, were 
but little inclined to believe in Mesmerism, tried to awaken 

Mademoiselle M , or to startle her by sudden noises. 

Logs of wood have been dashed against the floor: plates 
have been suddenly broken ; her name has been shouted out 
close to her ear, in vain. Other persons present have shown 
that they were startled, but not the sleepwaker. Once or 
twice, indeed, on such occasions, when asked if she heard 
anything, she has replied, < No, I heard nothing ; but I thought, 
just now, something pushed against my chair;' a mode of 
expression which deserves to be remarked, as analogous to 
that used by deaf persons to describe the sensations given 
them by the concussion of the air produced by great sounds." 
— Townshend,p. 102. 

" The scientific person to whom I have once before alluded, 
and whose testimony is valuable, inasmuch as his habits of 
mind led him ever to separate illusion from truth, assured 
me, when in the mesmeric state, that he could hear no sound 
whatever except my voice. I made another person speak 
who was in the room on that occasion, and the sleepwaker 
was unaware that anything had been said. 

" Another patient (E. A , to whom I shall have occa- 
sion to allude hereafter) said, when I was singing, ' You 

should ask Mr. Y -' (a musician who was in the room) ' to 

accompany you.' I did so ; but, though Mr. Y made a 

loud accompaniment to my voice, E. A. kept calling out, 
8 Why does he not play ? ' " — Townshend, p. 104. 

The facts thus reported we venture to deem unquestiona- 
ble, especially as they may easily be confirmed by scores of 
similar cases, afforded by the experience of all who are fa- 
miliar with the Magnetic phenomena. How are they to be 
accounted for ? We submit that the effects refer us to the 
laws of the spiritual sphere for a development of the cause, 
and that no other solution than that which Swedenborg has 
given is adequate. 

" Ideas, inasmuch as they are expressions of speech, are 



MAGNETIC HEARING. 141 

sonorous among spirits and angels, hence the tacit thought of 
men is audible to spirits and angels, when it so pleases the 
Lord, 5 '— A. C. 6624. 

" The speech of an angel or a spirit with man is heard as 
sonorously as the speech of a man with a man ; yet it is not 
heard by others who stand near, but by himself alone ; the 
reason is, because the speech of an angel or spirit flows first 
into the man's thought, and by an internal way into his organ 
of hearing, and thus moves that from within ; but the speech 
of man with man flows first into the air, and by an external 
way into his organ of hearing, and moves it from without. 
Hence it is evident that the speech of an angel and of a spirit 
with man is heard in man, and, because it equally moves the 
organs of hearing, that it is also equally sonorous. That the 
speech of an angel and of a spirit flows down even into the 
ear from within, was evident to me from this, that it also 
flows into the tongue, and excites in it a slight vibration, but 
not with any motion, as when the sound of speech is articu- 
lated by it into words by the man himself." — H. fy H. 248. 

The latter of the above extracts speaks indeed of the vocal 
communication of angels and spirits with man while sojourn- 
ing in the body, but it still illustrates the point before us, viz. 
the mode of hearing in the Mesmeric state ; for as a spiritual 
sensation is developed in the subject, the utterance of the out- 
er man, by means of the vocal organs, is as really heard as the 
speech of the inner man, which is, in a great degree, inde- 
pendent of audible sounds. We say — in a great degree — be- 
cause it is unquestionable that the accompaniment of the 
speaker's voice does in some way essentially aid the inner 
hearing of the subject, although the idea is communicable 
without it. 

" What is the nature of the correspondence between the 
soul and the body, or between those things which are of the 
spirit which is within man, and those which are of the body 
which are out of him, may appear manifestly from the cor- 
respondence, influx, and communication of the thought and 
apperception which are of the spirit, with the speech and 
hearing which are of the body. The thought of a man speak- 
ing is nothing but the speech of his spirit, and the appercep- 
tion of speech is nothing but the hearing of his spirit; 
thought, when man speaks, does not indeed appear to him 
as speech, because it conjoins itself with the speech of the 



142 MESMER AND SWEfcENBORG. 

body, and is in it ; and apperception, when man hears, does 
not appear otherwise than as hearing in the ear. Thence it 
is, that most people, who have not reflected, do not know 
otherwise, than that all sense is in the organs which are of 
the body, and consequently that when those organs fall to 
decay by death, nothing of sense survives, when yet man, 
that is, his spirit, then comes into his veriest sensitive life. 
That it is the spirit which speaks and which hears, was 
made manifest to me from conversations with spirits. Their 
speech, communicated to my spirit, fell into my interior 
speech, and thence into the corresponding organs, and there 
terminated in an effort closed into a conatus, which occasion- 
ally I have manifestly perceived. Hence their speech was 
heard by me as sonorously as the speech of man. At times, 
when spirits have spoken with me in the midst of a compa- 
ny of men, some of them have supposed, because their 
speech was heard so sonorously, that they would be heard 
also by those who were there present; but reply was made, 
that it is not so, inasmuch as their speech flowed into my ear 
by an internal way, and human speech by an external way. 
Hence it is evident, how the Spirit spake with the prophets, 
not as man with man, but as a spirit with a man, namely, 
in him, Zechariah i. 9, 13; chap. ii. 2, 7; chap. iv. 1,4,5; 
chap. v. 5, 10 ; chap. vi. 4 ; and in other places. But I know 
that these things cannot be comprehended by those, who do 
not believe that man is a spirit, and that the body serves him 
for uses in the world ; they who have confirmed themselves 
in this, are not indeed willing to hear of any correspondence, 
and if they hear, inasmuch as they are in the negative prin- 
ciple, they reject ; yea, they are also made sad that anything 
is taken away from the body."— A. C. 4652. 

6 ' It is known from the Word of the Lord, that many per- 
sons formerly conversed with angels and spirits, and that 
they heard and saw many things which exist in the other 
life ; but that afterwards heaven was as it were shut up, in- 
somuch that at this day it is scarcely believed that spirits and 
angels exist, still less that any one can converse with them, 
from an idea that it is impossible to converse with those who 
are invisible, and whom in their heart they deny. But where- 
as, by the divine mercy of the Lord, it has been granted me 
now for some years almost continually to hold discourse 
with spirits and angels, and to be in their company as one of 
them, it is permitted me to relate what it has been given me 
to know concerning their speech among themselves. 

" The speech of the spirits with me, was heard and per- 
ceived as distinctly as the speech of men ; nay, when I have 
discoursed with them whilst in company with men, it was 



MAGNETIC HEARING. 143 

observed, that as I heard the men sonorously, so I heard also 
the spirits ; insomuch that the spirits sometimes wondered 
that their discourse with me was not heard by others ; for, 
as to hearing, there was no difference at all. Bat as the in- 
flux into the internal organs of hearing is different from the 
influx of speech with men, it could be heard by none but 
myself, to whom these organs, by the divine mercy of the 
Lord, were open. Human speech flows in through the ear, by 
an external way, by the medium of the air; whereas the 
speech of spirits does not enter through the ear, nor by the 
medium of the air, but by an internal way, into the same or- 
gans of the head or brain : hence the hearing is similar." — 
A. C. 1634-1635. 

"The speaking of spirits with man, as has been stated 
above, is effected by vocal expressions : but the speaking of 
spirits with each other is by ideas, wherein vocal expres- 
sions originate, such as are the ideas of thought : these, how- 
ever, are not so obscure as are those of man during his life 
in the body, but are distinct, after the manner of speech. Hu- 
man thought, after the decease of the body, becomes more 
distinct and clear, and the ideas of thought become discrete, 
so as to serve for distinct forms of speech : for the obscurity is 
dissipated with the body, and thus the thought, being freed 
as it were from the shackles with which it was encumbered, 
consequently, from the shadows hi which it was involved, 
becomes more instantaneous; and hence the intuition, per- 
ception, and utterance, of every particular is rendered more 
immediate."— A. C. 1757. 

Commentary is scarcely needed upon the above elucida- 
tions. The evidence is decisive that Swedenborg has given 
an expose of the law of spiritual acoustics which applies 
directly and unequivocally to the corresponding peculiarities 
of the magnetic condition. It is but another item in his ac- 
cumulation of proofs that the all of sensation (excepting taste) 
which man enjoys here he enjoys also in the other world, 
only in a more exquisite degree, as pertaining to the more 
interior principles of his nature. It adds also another link in 
the chain of evidence which goes to establish the marked 
affinity between the internal state of a mesmerized subject 
and that of a spirit free from the bondage of the body. 
What can be more palpable than the points of resemblance 
between the phenomena of hearing in the two cases ? 



144 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

REPUGNANCE TO NAMES. 

The peculiarity indicated by the title of the present chap- 
ter is one which seldom fails to manifest itself more or less 
to all those who are conversant with the Mesmeric pheno- 
mena. It is often a perplexing problem why the subject, 
when in that state, and attempting the description of the 
commonest material objects, should not at once designate 
them by their appropriate name, instead of describing them 
by their qualities or uses, which he is almost invariably 
prompted to do. If the operator holds in his hand a watch 
and asks his subject what it is, he will be very apt to reply 
that it is something by which to tell the time — of a staff, that 
it is something to walk with — of a knife, that it is something 
to cut with — of a garment, that it is something to wear, and 
so of a thousand other things. Those who have entered but 
little into the philosophy of the magnetic condition are fre- 
quently stumbled by this circumstance, being utterly at a loss 
to comprehend why it is not as easy to name as to perceive 
the object in question. The consequence is, that many are 
led to doubt of the fact of the perception at all, and resolve 
the matter into a species of evasion on the part of the sub- 
ject. But the truth is, the peculiarity rests on some of the 
profoundest principles of psychology which receive an abun- 
dant eclaircisement at the hands of Swedenborg. We should 
have much more reason to doubt the reality and lucidity of 
their internal perception were the case otherwise than it is. 
The state developed by Mesmerism is one which brings the 
subject into contact with the soul and essences of things, or in 
other words into the sphere of universal causes. As all sensible 
objects are a mere body to the internal living principle which 
actuates and moulds them, so the names by which they are 
designated are mere outward coverings that fall off, as it 
were, when their inner essence and constitution is revealed, 



REPUGNANCE TO NAMES. 145 

as it is to the faculty interiorly awakened in the spirit of the 
sleep -seer. It is then, as I have been informed by a very 
intelligent subject of that state, positively painful to endeavor 
to clothe the ideas in what, in the natural state, would be 
their appropriate language. Not only have they an unac- 
countable repugnance to employ the proper terms when they 
occur to them, but often they do not occur — they cannot find 
them — they have strangely disappeared from the memory. 
They have accordingly in many cases a strong disposition to 
make use of gestures to convey .their meaning, and in others 
to resort to such round-about modes of phraseology as make 
their answers appear like guessing, as if they were but half 
certain of what they intended to express. 

The rationale of all this is very luminously expounded by 
Swedenborg in two grand features of his disclosures, the one 
touching the principle of spiritual thought, the other that of 
the external memory. He informs us that man is ordinarily, 
in the present world, in natural thought, which is a thought 
conversant with natural objects, and that the objects of this 
thought are also the objects which form the materiel of the 
external memory. But there is notwithstanding in every man 
an innate potency of the waking up of a principle of spiritual 
thought, which has respect to entirely another class of ob- 
jects, and with which the internal memory is more especially 
connected. This faculty is not normally developed in the 
present life, but every one comes into the exercise of it in 
the other life, where the objects with which he is conversant 
are no longer natural but spiritual. In that state also the ex- 
ternal memory* though not extinguished, is rendered dor- 
mant ; and though its contents may be occasionally repro- 
duced, and the soul let in to any former state of which it has 
ever been conscious, yet this is not according to the estab - 
lished order of that world.* 



* The following is mentioned as an exception to a general rule: 
" That men after death, that is, spirits, lose not the smallest portion 
of the things pertaining to their exterior or corporeal memory, but 
have all the contents of it, or all the memory with them, although 
it is not allowable to bring forth thence the particulars of their life, 



146 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

The following passages disclose the facts of the spiritual 
condition of the other life ; their bearing upon the present 
theme will shortly appear. 

" Man, while he lives in the body, can scarcely know that 
he has an interior memory, because then the interior memory 
almost acts as one with the exterior memory for the ideas of 
thought, which are of the interior memory, flow into the 
things which are of the exterior memory, as into their ves- 
sels, and are there conjoined. This case is the same as when 
angels and spirits speak with man ; then their ideas, by which 
they converse with each other, flow into the expressions of 
man's language, and so conjoin themselves with these, that 
they know no otherwise than that they themselves speak in 
man's mother tongue, when yet the ideas alone are theirs, 
and the expressions into which they flow, are man's, con- 
cerning which circumstance I have frequently discoursed 
with spirits. 

" These two memories are altogether distinct from each 
other ; to the exterior memory, which is proper to man when 
he lives in the world, pertain all expressions of languages, 
also all objects of the external things of the senses, and like- 
wise the scientifics which are of the world. To the interior 
memory pertain the ideas of the speech of spirits, which are 
of the interior sight, and all rational things, from the ideas 
whereof thought itself exists. That these things are distinct 
from each other, man does not know, as well because he 
does not reflect thereupon, as because he is in corporeals, 
and cannot so easily withdraw his mind from them. 

" Hence it is that men, while they live in the body, cannot 
speak with each other, but by languages distinguished into 
articulate sounds, or expressions, and cannot understand each 
other, unless they are acquainted with those languages ; the 
reason is, because this is done from the exterior memory. 
Whereas spirits converse with each other by an universal 
language distinguished into ideas, such as are the ideas of 
thought itself, and thus can converse with every spirit, of 

has been given me to know by much experience; as may appear 
evident from the following relations. Two spirits, whom I had 
known during their life in the body, and who were at enmity with 
each other, met together, when I heard one describing the genius 
and character of the other with many circumstances, also what 
opinion he had had concerning him, reciting an entire epistle 
which he had written to him, and many more things in a series 
which were particular, and were of the exterior memory, and 
which the other acknowledged, but without making any reply." — 
A- C. 2481. 



REPUGNANCE TO NAMES. 147 

whatever language or nation he had been in the world ; the 
reason is, because this is done from the interior memory. 
Every man, immediately after death, comes into this univer- 
sal language, because he comes into this interior memory, 
which, as was said, is proper to his spirit." — A, C. 2470- 
2472. 

" The external or natural memory, as to those things there- 
in which are derived from what is material, and from time 
and space, and from all other things which are proper to 
nature, does not serve the spirit for that use in which it had 
served it in the world ; for man in the world, when he thought 
from the external sensual, and not at the same time from the 
internal sensual, or the intellectual, thought naturally and not 
spiritually; yet in the other life, when the spirit is in the spi- 
ritual world, he does not think naturally, but spiritually; to 
think spiritually is to think intellectually or rationally. Hence 
it is, that the external or natural memory, as to those things 
which are material, is then quiescent, and those things only 
come into use which man has in the world imbibed by means 
of material things, and has made rational. The reason why 
the external memory is quiescent as to those things which 
are material, is, because they cannot be reproduced : for spi- 
rits and angels speak from affections and thence thoughts." — 
H. $ H. 464. 

" Inasmuch as men after death are in the interior memory, 
which was of their rational, hence it is, that they who have 
been distinguished in the world for their skill in languages, 
are not able to call forth into utterance a single expression of 
those languages ; and that they who have been distinguished 
for skill in the sciences, are not able to recollect anything of 
scientifics, and that these are sometimes more stupid than 
others. — A. C. 2480. 

What light, then, is reflected from these statements on the 
circumstance to which we have alluded as usually connected 
with the Mesmeric manifestations ? The entire mass of evi- 
dence accumulated in the preceding pages goes to show, 
that the subjects of that state are elevated in a very conside- 
rable degree into a spiritual state, that is, into the state of spi- 
rits. Consequently the fixed phenomena of the spiritual world 
evince themselves more or less distinctly in the experience 
to which the state gives rise. In respect to the peculiarity we 
are now considering, there can be no Jdoubt that the person 



148 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

under the magnetic influence is elevated so far into the sp i- 
ritual region, that his thought becomes at least partially spi- 
ritual, and the consequence is that his external memory cea- 
ses, in the same degree, to furnish the materials for express- 
ing natural thought. How then can he but forego the use of 
those terms with which he is familiar in a natural state ? It 
is the* prerogative of this spiritual state to deal with spiritual 
objects, and these objects are the inner essences of all mate- 
rial embodiments.* Their perceptions fix upon the inherent 
qualities, properties, and uses of the thousand-fold objects of 
the material world, for these are the causes of everything that 
comes within the range of the senses in the natural sphere. 

The philosophy of this — and a strange philosophy it will 
be seen to be to have emanated from a madman — will be 
distinctly seen in what follows. 

* " That nothing exists in nature but from a spiritual principle 
is, because there cannot anything be given, unless it has a soul ; 
all that is called soul which is essence, for what has not in itself 
an essence, this does not exist, for it is a nonenity, because there is 
no esse from which it is ; thus it is with nature ; its essence from 
which it exists is the spiritual principle, because this has in itself 
the divine esse, and also the divine power of acting, creating, and 
forming, as will be seen from what follows : this essence may also 
be called soul : because all that is spiritual lives, and what is alive, 
when it acts into what is not alive, as into what is natural, causes 
it either to have as it were life, or to derive somewhat of the ap- 
pearance thereof from the living principle : the latter [is the case] 
in vegetables, the former in animals. That nothing in nature ex- 
ists but from what is spiritual, is because no effect is given without 
a cause, whatever exists in effect is from a cause ; what is not 
from a cause, is separated ; thus it is with nature ; the singular 
and most singular things thereof are an effect from a cause which 
is prior to it., and which is interior to it, and which is superior to 
it, and also is immediately from God ; for a spiritual world is giv- 
en, that world is prior, interior, and superior to the natural world, 
wherefore everything of the spiritual world is a cause and every- 
thing of the natural world is an effect. Indeed one thing exists 
from another progressively even in the natural world, but this by 
causes from the spiritual world, for where the cause of the effect is, 
there also is the cause of the effect sufficient; for every effect be- 
comes an efficient cause in order even to the ultimate, where the 
effective power subsists ; but this is effected continually from a 
spiritual principle, in which alone that force is ; and so it is, that 
nothing in nature exists except from something spiritual and by 
it."~-Mh. Creed. 94. 



REPUGNANCE TO NAMES. 149 

" If you will believe it, the very interior thought of the 
man who is in good, apprehends this, because that thought 
is in the internal sense ; although the man when in the 
body is deeply ignorant of it, for the internal sense, or the 
spiritual seDse, which is of the interior thought, falls, with- 
out his knowing it, into material and sensual ideas, which 
partake of time and space, and of such things as exist in 
the world, and thus it does not appear that his interior 
thought is such ; for his interior thought is of a quality like 
that of the angels, inasmuch as his spirit is with them in 
society. That the thought of the man who is in good, is 
according to the internal sense, may be manifest from this, 
that after death, when he comes into heaven, he is instant- 
ly, without any information, in the internal sense ; which 
would in no wise be the case, unless he had been in that 
sense as to interior thought, when in the world. The cause 
of his being in that sense is, because there is a correspond- 
ence between spiritual things and natural, of such a na- 
ture, that there is not the smallest thing but what has its cor- 
respondence ; therefore, inasmuch as the interior or rational 
mind of the man who is in good, is in the spiritual world, and 
his exterior or natural mind in the natural world, it must 
needs be that each mind thinks, but the interior mind spiritu- 
ally, and the exterior naturally, and that the spiritual falls into 
the natural, and they act as one by correspondence. That 
the interior mind of man, whereof the ideas of thought are 
called intellectual, and are said to be immaterial, does not 
think from the expression of any language, consequently not 
from natural forms, may be manifest to him who can reflect 
concerning them ; for he can think in a moment what he can 
scarcely utter in an hour, thus by universals, which compre- 
hend in them very many singulars. Those ideas of thought 
are spiritual ; and no other, when the Word is read, than as 
is the internal sense ; although man is ignorant of this, by 
reason, as was said, because those spiritual ideas, by influx 
into the natural, present natural ideas, and thus the spiritual 
ideas do not appear ; insomuch that man believes, unless he 
have been instructed, that there is no spiritual but what in 
quality is like the natural, yea, that he thinks in the spirit no 
otherwise than as he speaks in the body ; in such manner 
does the natural overshadow the spiritual." — A. C. 5614. 

" The internal sense of the Word is principally for those 
who are in the other life : they, when they are with the man 
who is reading the Word, perceive it according to the internal 
sense, but not according to the external sense, for they un- 
derstand no human expressions, but only the sense of the ex- 



150 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

pressions, and this not according to the natural thoughts of 
man, but according to his thoughts which are spiritual ; into th" s 
spiritual sense the natural sense, which is with man, is instant- 
ly transmuted, comparatively as one turns the language of 
another into his own, which is different, which is done sud- 
denly ; thus the sense of human natural thought is transmut- 
ed into spiritual, for spiritual language or speech is proper to 
the angels, but natural is proper to the man : that the trans- 
mutation as it were of one language into another is so sud- 
den, is because there is a correspondence of all and single 
things which are in the natural world with those which are 
in the spiritual world." — A. C. 5648. 

" The reason why these things are signified by Jehovah 
speaking to Moses, is, because those words are not perceiv- 
ed in heaven as in earth ; for in heaven the words are per- 
ceived according to the internal sense, but in earth according 
to the external sense, for in heaven all things are spiritually 
understood, but in earth naturally ; the former understanding 
is momentaneous, without the knowledge of what is under- 
stood in the external or literal sense by man. Such is the 
consociation of the angels of heaven with man, by reason 
that the all of man's thought flows -in from the spiritual 
world, and thus that his thought in its first origin is spiritual, 
and becomes natural in the external man by influx." — A. C. 
10,215. 

"In the internal sense the persons and words are not re- 
flected on, but only their signification. In heaven they do 
not know who Lot is, but the quality represented by him ; 
nor do they know what a son is, but the spiritual state, which 
is respectively as a son; nor what a brother is, except from 
the nature of that brotherhood which prevails in heaven. As 
to what concerns truth sensual, it is the first truth which in- 
sinuates itself into a child, for in childhood the judgment does 
not penetrate deeper. Truth sensual is, that all things of the 
earth and the world are seen as created by God, and all and 
each for some end, and that in all and each is seen some re- 
semblance of the kingdom of God. "--A. C. 1434. 

We are now prepared to solve the problem respecting the 
non-use of names in the Mesmeric state. The principle to 
which this is owing has already been developed. What fol- 
lows naturally refers itself at once to this principle. It grows 
out of the spiritual thought pertaining to the spiritual state — 
a state which has to do with the qualities of things. 



REPUGNANCE TO NAMES. 151 

" Inasmuch as the name signifies the quality of any per- 
son, it comprehends in one complex whatever is in him ; for, 
in heaven, no attention is paid to the name of any one, but 
when any one is named, or when the term 'name ' is men- 
tioned, there is presented the idea of the person's quality, or 
of all things which are his, are with him, and are in him ; 
hence a name, in the Word, signifies quality." — A. C. 2009. 

" In the spiritual world, or in heaven, persons do not come 
under the mind's view, but things, for persons limit the idea, 
and concentre it to something finite, whereas things do not 
limit and concentre, but extend it to the infinite, thus to the 
Lord. Thence also it is, that not any person, which is named 
in the Word, is perceived in heaven, but instead thereof the 
thing which is represented by that person, so neither any 
people or nation, but the quality thereof. Yea, further, not 
a single historical of the Word concerning person, nation, 
and people, is at all known in heaven, consequently neither 
is it known who Abraham is, who Isaac, who Jacob, who 
the Israelitish people, and who the Jewish nation, but it is 
there perceived what Abraham is, what Isaac, what Jacob, 
what the Israelitish people, what the Jewish nation, and so 
in all other cases ; hence the angelic speech is respectively 
unlimited and also universal." — A. C. 5225. 

" The sense of the letter in most places has respect to per- 
sons, and also mentions them, but the truly spiritual sense 
is altogether without respect to persons ; for the angels, who 
are in the spiritual sense of the Word, in everything which 
they think and speak, have not any. idea of person or of 
place, inasmuch as the idea of person or of place limits and 
confines the thoughts, and thereby renders them natural ; but 
it is otherwise when the idea is abstracted from persons and 
places ; and hence it is that they have intelligence and wis- 
dom, and that angelic intelligence and wisdom are ineffable ; 
for man, so long as he lives in the world, is in natural thought, 
and natural thought derives its ideas from persons, places, 
times, and things material, which, if they were taken away 
from man, his thought which comes to perception would 
perish, for he comprehends nothing without those things ; 
but angelic thought is without ideas derived from persons, 
places, times, and things material; hence it is that angelic 
thought and speech is ineffable, and also incomprehensible 
to man. The man, however, who has lived in the world a 
life of love to the Lord and of charity towards his neighbor, 
after his departure out of the world comes into that ineffable 
intelligence and wisdom, for his interior mind, which is the 



152 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

mind itself of his spirit, is then opened, and in such case the 
man, when he becomes an angel, thinks and speaks from that 
mind, and consequently thinks and speaks such things as he 
could not utter or comprehend in the world : every man has 
such a spiritual mind, which is like to the angelic mind : but 
in the world, inasmuch as he there speaks, sees, hears, and 
perceives by the material body, it lies hid within the natural 
mind, or lives above that mind, and what man therein thinks, 
he is altogether ignorant of; for the thought of that mind then 
flows into the natural mind, and there limits itself, closes, 
and presents itself to be seen and perceived. Man knows 
not, whilst he continues in the body in this world, that he 
possesses inwardly such a mind, in which are contained an- 
gelic wisdom and intelligence, because as was said, all things 
which there engage attention flow into the natural mind, and 
thus become natural according to correspondences. These 
things are said in order that it may be known what is the 
quality of the Word in the spiritual sense, when that sense is 
altogether abstracted from persons and places, that is, from 
such things as derive their quality from what is material per- 
taining to the body and the world." — A. E. 625. 

The foregoing extracts disclose, by the way, the funda- 
mental principle on which is founded the internal sense of 
the Word, a feature of Swedenborg's system that has laid it 
open to the charge of fancifulness, extravagance, and whim- 
sicality — whatever be the term by which the character of vis- 
ionary can be most emphatically affixed to it. But it is clear 
that something more is requisite than the use of odious epi- 
thets to do away the force of the evidence in its support. It is 
a theory, so to term it, which rests upon a principle, and the 
principle must be confuted before the theory can be over- 
thrown. The principle is, that the spiritual sense of the Word 
arises by necessary result from the spiritual nature of man. 
The two facts inevitably stand or fall together. Let any one 
peruse the following passage and then pronounce whether 
the principle involved is to be set down among the vagaries 
of a disjointed intellect, 

" Inasmuch as at this day it is altogether unknown that in 
the Word there is an internal sense, yea, what the internal 
sense of the Word is, it may be expedient to say a few words 
farther concerning it. The ideas of the thought of angels are 



REPUGNANCE TO NAMES. 153 

not natural, such as are the ideas of the thought of men, but 
they are spiritual ; nevertheless the quality of their spiritual 
ideas can hardly be comprehended by man, except by interi- 
or thought and reflection on the first rudiments of their 
thoughts, which, that they are without expression of speech, 
is known from this circumstance, that they are such that man 
can in a moment comprehend more things than he is able 
to express by speech in any given time ; these ideas of 
thought appertain to his spirit; but the ideas of thought 
which man comprehends, and which fall into expressions, 
are natural : and by the learned are called material ; whereas 
the former or interior ideas are called spiritual, and by the 
learned immaterial ; into these ideas man comes after death, 
when he becomes a spirit, and by these ideas he con- 
sociates in discourse with other spirits. There is a cor- 
respondence between these ideas and the former, and by 
correspondence the former are turned into these, or spir- 
itual ideas into natural, when man speaks. This is not 
known to man, because he does not reflect upon it, and no 
others are capable of reflecting upon it, but those who 
think interiorly, that is, who think in their spirit abstractedly 
from the body ; sensual men are utterly unable to do this. 
Row since there is correspondence between spiritual thought 
and natural, and since the angels are in spiritual thought, 
hence the angels perceive spiritually what man perceives 
naturally, and this in an instant without any reflection 
on the difference ; this is effected principally when man reads 
the Word, or when he thinks from the Word, for the Word is 
so written, that there is correspondence in all and singular 
things. As for example, when man reads these words of the 
Lord in Matthew, ' After the affliction of those days the sun 
shall be obscured, and the moon shall not give her light, and 
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the virtues of the hea- 
vens shall be moved ; then shall appear the sign of the Son 
of Man, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn ; and 
they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven 
with virtue and glory,' xxiv. 29, 30. These words the angels 
apperceive altogether otherwise than man ; by the sun which 
shall be obscured they do not apperceive the sun, but love to 
the Lord; by the moon they do not apperceive the moon, 
but faith in the Lord ; nor by stars, stars, but the knowledges 
of good and truth ; by the Son of Man, they apperceive the 
Lord as to Divine Truth ; by the tribes of the earth, all the 
truths of the Church; by the clouds of heaven, they apper- 
ceive the Word in the sense of the letter ; and by virtue and 
glory, the Word in the internal sense. Into this understand- 
ing of those words the angels come in an instant from cor- 
respondence, when man reads them ; nor do they know that 



154 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

man thinks of the sun, of the moon, of the stars, of the clouds 
of heaven, &c, the reason is, because the angels are in a 
spiritual idea, and a spiritual idea is such, that the things 
which are of nature are turned into things of heavenly light, 
which is the Divine Truth from the Lord. Another reason 
why the angels so perceive the Word, when man reads it, is 
because angels are attendant on men, and dwell in their af- 
fections ; and because man as to his spirit is in society with 
spirits, and as to interior thought, which is spiritual, with the 
angels of heaven. Hence also man has the faculty of thinking. 
These observations are intended to show what the internal 
sense of the \V ord is, or what the interior things of the Word, 
of the Church, and of worship are, which are called celestial 
and spiritual things."— A, C. 10,604. 

Hundreds of passages might be easily adduced from these 
writings of parallel import, all going to prove that this pecu- 
liarity of Swedenborg' s interpretations rests upon the pro- 
foundest principles of psychology, and although we may not 
in all cases clearly perceive the intrinsic truth of his applica- 
tions of the general law, yet the evidence which he has af- 
forded of being divinely empowered to develope the law it- 
self, lays a foundation for entire confidence in all his specific 
exemplifications of it. There is the same ground for believing 
in the soundness of his exposition of every part of the Word, 
that there is for believing in it in regard to any part.* 

* We would here remark that, as a general fact, the spiritual 
sense, as given by Swedenborg, does not interfere with the literal. 
In the purely 2^'ophetic portions of the Word, as for instance, in that 
quoted above from the Evangelist, Mat. xxiv. 29, 30, he does in- 
deed maintain that the spiritual is the primary and exclusive 
sense, but in the historical writings he expressly asserts, that the 
facts recorded were actual facts, although an interior purport 
adapted to the faculties and exigencies of the spiritual man is 
all along to be recognised in them. But no conceit is more ground- 
less than that Swedenborg spiritualises aivay the literal truth of the 
sacred narrative. It was a historical fact, for instance, that the 
angel found Hager by a fountain in the wilderness, but Sweden- 
borg, after giving the spiritual sense of the narrative, remarks, 
" That these things are signified by the angel of Jehovah finding 
Hagar at the lountain of waters in the wilderness, at the fountain 
in the way to Shur, cannot at all appear from the literal sense, and 
still less as being an historical fact; for the literal sense seems very 
remote from conveying such signification. Nevertheless, this is 
the sense which enters into the ideas of angels, when this relation 



TRUTHFULNESS. 15S 

But this by the way. Our main object in the present chapter 
has been to afford a solution of the fact that Mesmeric sub- 
jects are so generally found averse to the use of the names 
of material objects. 



CHAPTER IX, 



TRUTHFULNESS. 



The observation is often made by those acquainted with 
the peculiarities of the Mesmeric state, that its subjects evince 
a remarkable degree of sincerity and truthfulness in what- 
ever falls from their lips during the trance. " Separated," 
says Mr. Townshend, " from the usual action of the senses, 
the mind appears to gain juster notions, to have quite a new 
sense of spiritual things, and to be lifted nearer the fountain 
of all good and all truth. The great indication of this eleva- 
ted state of feeling is a horror of falsehood, which I have 
found common to all sleep -wakers. Sincerity is their espe- 
cial characteristic ; they cannot feign or flatter ; they seem to 
be taken out of common life, with all its heartless forms and 
plausible conventions." It is not implied by this that they 
do not utter anything that is erroneous — which they undoubt- 
edly often do, owing to delusive influences under which they 
come, especially if their ordinary moral state is not good — 
but that they do not practise wilful deception. Their words 
do not belie their real sentiments as they are then impressed 

is read by man ; for the angels have no idea of Hagar, nor of a 
fountain of waters, nor of a vvilderness, nor of a way, nor of 
Shur: none of these things reach to them, but they perish at the 
first threshold of heaven: they understand, however, what is sig- 
nified by Hagar, by a fountain, by a wilderness, by a way, and by 
Shur, and this from heavenly ideas; and thus they apprehend 
the Word of the Lord ; for the internal sense is to them the Word." 
A. C. 1929. v 



156 MESMER AKD SWEDENBORG. 

upon them. There is apparently an instinctive shrinking 
from every form of dissimulation, so much so that it would be 
extremely difficult for them in that state to act apart, as they 
are often accused of doing by those who refuse to yield their 
credence to the facts of the Mesmeric agency. Even if they 
had, in the waking state, consented to become parties to a 
collusion to deceive, the end would be very apt to be frus- 
trated by the spontaneous honesty of then* extatic prompt- 
ings. 

Among the striking instances of the exhibition of this pe- 
culiar feature of the Mesmeric state we insert the following 
from Mr. Townshend's work so often quoted above : 

" I proceed, by one or two instances, to show how forci- 
bly sleep-wakers are impelled to speak the thing that is, 
and to clear their consciences of that dissimulation which 
clings so much to man in his natural state. 

"During the Antwerp carnival, a lady, who took a sincere 

interest in Anna M 's welfare, advised her not to go to 

the masked ball which is usually given at that season. The 
night after the ball Anna came to be mesmerized, and, though 
complaining of fatigue, would not own that she had acted in 
opposition to the advice that she had received. When, how- 
ever, in sleep-waking, she acknowledged of her own accord 
that she had been at the masked ball, and said that she felt 
she had done wrong in practising concealment, though her 
motive had been to avoid giving pain to her kind monitress. 

" A similar instance of candid confession occurred in E. A. 
I had given him a bottle of lotion for his eyes, which were 
weak at the time ; he took it home with him, and a day or 
two afterward, in reply to my inquiries as to the benefit re- 
ceived, answered hi some prevaricating way, so as to make 
me suppose that he had used the lotion to advantage. Sub- 
sequently, however, being in mesmeric sleep -waking, he 
said, quite voluntarily, ' There is something that I wish to 
tell you. In going home the other night I broke that bottle 
which you gave me. I feared you would be angry if you 
knew this, and I dared not own it when awake ; but now I 
feel that I did not act rightly.' 

" In the mesmeric state, the character of this sleep -waker 
presented generally a strong contrast to its waking exhibition. 
Good talents and a good disposition had in him been warped 
by an unfortunate education ; and, young as he was, he had 
imbibed at Paris certain infidel opinions of the worst kind, 



TRUTHFULNESS. 157 

which he scarcely studied to conceal. I asked him once, in 
his waking state, what he thought became of us after death : 
and his answer was, ' Des qu'on est mort, on n'est plus rien 
du tout, 5 — after death, one is no more any thing at all. 

" This extreme ignorance on most subjects was accompa- 
nied by a vain belief that he knew a good deal ; and if one 
stated to him the commonest facts of philosophy (the dis- 
tance of the sun from the earth, for example), he suspected 
a design of playing upon his credulity, and intrenched him- 
self in absolute unbelief. In sleep-waking all this was 
changed. His ideas of the mind were correct, and singularly 
opposed to the material views he took of all questions when 
in the waking state. He once chided me for calling the soul 
' une chose; 1 and said, ' Ce n'est pas une chose — c'est une pen- 
see. ' ' Can the soul ever die ? ' I asked. ' Certainly not. It 
is the soul which is the only true existence, and which gives 
existence to all we apprehend.' ' Whence came the soul ? ' 
• From God, who by his thoughts created the universe.' His 
words were, ' L'ame provient de Dieu, qui a cree l'univers 
par sa pensee.' ' Is there a future punishment for evil- 
doers ? ' « Undoubtedly, a great one.' ' In what will it con- 
sist ? ' ' In seeing themselves as they are, and God as he is.' 

" On another occasion I mesmerized E. A. when a lady of 
great talents and feeling, and an author well known to En- 
glish literature, were present. The latter was suffering under 
a severe domestic affliction. He had recently lost a beloved 
daughter, and the tone of mind induced by that bereavement 
naturally inclined him to question thesleepwaker on subjects 

relative to a future state. In order that Mr. might speak 

with the greater freedom, I placed him ' en rapport,' as it is call- 
ed, with E. A., and took but little part in the conversation that 
ensued. The conversation itself I cannot accurately detail, 
but the general impression that it left upon my mind can 
never be effaced. The sleep waker rose into eloquence which 
seemed unearthly. It was simple, it was beautiful, it was 
like an inspiration. He spoke of the never-dying nature of 
the soul; of its ransomed beatitude; of its progress through 
various eras of existence, during which he asserted (for here 
I remember his very words), ' Elle conserve la memoire 
du passe, et des amities faites sur la terre ; et elle a l'envie de 
re voir ceux qu'elle a cheris autrefois. Tout le bien de l'ame 
s'en va avec elle, et dure apres la mort; et les justes qui se 
sont pleures ici bas seront reunis devant Dieu.' Every one 
present was affected ; some even to tears. It was indeed 
beautiful to see the young prophet, whose countenance had 
retaken an expression of candor and of childish innocence, 
speaking so calmly the words of holiness and of comfort, and 
8 



158 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

the older listener humbly stooping to drink of the waters of 
refreshment from so lowly a source. 

" The same sleepwaker, thoroughly unsentimental in his 
natural state, seemed always, when mesmerized, to take a 
pleasure in losing himself in imaginations of another world. 
Beautiful are the things he has said to me respecting the 
soul's recognition of those it loved on earth, and of the privi- 
lege of departed friends to watch over the objects of their so- 
licitude while toiling through the pilgrimage of life ; but, 
were I particularly to record these speculations, as they would 
be called, 4 should probably be deemed a visionary, or brand- 
ed as an enthusiast. It is enough to say that, under mes- 
meric sleepwaking, all the hard incredulity which character- 
ized E. A. when awake was gone. His wilfulness was be- 
come submission ; his pride, humility ; and, in precise pro- 
portion as he seemed to know more, he appeared to esteem 
himself less. Often would he regret the errors of his waking 
hours, and speak of his natural state as of an existence apart. 
Often would he exclaim, in sleepwaking, * How I wish I 
could always see things as 1 do now ! ' There is not a per- 
son who saw him in the mesmeric state but remarked the 
change for the better that his physiognomy underwent. His 
affections, also, were enlarged. Egotistical in general, and 
displaying but little sensibility, he in the mesmeric state 
showed all the warmth of a kind-hearted nature. Shortly 
before leaving me I mesmerized him. Immediately on pass- 
ing into sleepwaking his countenance assumed an expression 
of the deepest sorrow, and he seemed scarcely able to speak. 
When asked the cause of his sadness, he said, * I am going 
away : how deeply I feel it ! ' Restored to his waking state, 
he laughed, and talked, and seemed as unconcerned as 
usual. 

"A state of mind so simple, so religious, so tender, yet so 
pure, is in itself a refutation of the charge of immorality which 
they who lack the charity that hopes and believes the best 
have attempted to bring against Mesmerism." — Townshend 
p. 117-121. 

As the the testimonies to the manifestation of the charac- 
ter of truthfulness in Mesmeric subjects are very ample, it 
would doubtless seem to be dependant on the operation of 
some law pertaining to spiritual existence, and one with 
which a fuller knowledge of the condition of spirits would 
make us acquainted. But Swedenborg is our great oracle on 
this head, and our resort must be to his writings to find a clue 



TRUTHFULNESS. 1 59 

to the solution of this problem of the Mesmeric experience. 
From him, accordingly, we learn that in the other world the ex- 
terior and interior man act in unity — that no spirit can utter 
anything contrary to his convictions — and that although he 
may apprehend falsehoods for truths, yet he cannot put forth 
known falsehoods in his speech. The following is to the 
point : 

" This especially manifests itself in the other life, for all in 
that life act from the heart, that is, from the will or love, and 
it is not allowed to act from gestures separate from thence, 
nor to speak from the mouth according to pretence, that is, 
separately from the thought of the heart." — A. C. 10,130. 

" In the natural world the speech of man is twofold, be- 
cause his thought is twofold, exterior and interior ; for a man 
can speak from his interior thought, and at the same time 
from his exterior thought, and he can speak from his exterior 
thought, and not from his interior, yea, contrary to his inte- 
rior thought, whence cometh dissimulation, assenting flatte- 
ry, and hypocrisy ; but in the spiritual world speech is not 
twofold, but single ; a man speaks there as he thinks." — A. 
R. 293. 

We recognize in all this another confirmation of the truth 
of Swedenborg's disclosures. The facts that are witnessed 
are strong in support of the statements which he makes in 
the character of a Seer divinely illuminated. What other in- 
ference can we draw from the evidence afforded ? And how 
powerfully is his claim sustained when we consider the re- 
sult cumulative arising from all the coincidences above ad- 
duced ? 



160 MESMER AND SVEDENBORG. 



CHAPTER X. 



CONCLUSION , 



The ground we have thus far traversed is probably suffi- 
cient for the purpose for which we entered upon it. The 
object has been to evince the affinity, if not the positive 
identity, of certain leading phenomena developed in the mes- 
meric state with those which Swedenborg has affirmed in 
respect to the laws of being and acting in the spiritual world. 
The force of the argument, it will be perceived, lies in this ; — 
that the psychological condition evolved by the magnetic 
processes is so near an approximation to the state of spirits 
divested of the body, that one in that condition comes under 
the dominant laws that govern a spirit, and so far reveals the 
state of a spirit. This fact accordingly is often recognised 
by subjects themselves while under the mesmeric influence. 
They scarcely seem to know otherwise than that they are 
spirits. I have frequently been struck at hearing them say 
when asked respecting their head, their hands, their feet, 
that they had none ; that is, that they had no such members 
as we usually understand by the terms. They speak as if, 
to their own consciousness, they had undergone an inward 
translation, by which they had passed out of a natural into a 
spiritual body. Upon reference to the Memorabilia of Swe- 
denborg we find the statements precisely such as we were au- 
thorized to anticipate from the previous developments before 
us. The state into which a subject is brought by the mes- 
meric process is a state in which the spirit preponderates, 
for the time being, over the body. Bodily sight, hearing, 
touch, taste, and smell are suspended. Still the soul — the 
inner man is awake and active, and in a state akin to that 
upon which it enters when mortality is swallowed up of life. 
Consequently new phenomena connected with inner sensa- 
tion and intelligence are brought out. These phenomena 
are clearly such as in the nature of the case pertain to the 



CONCLUSION. 161 

conditions of being in the other life ; and if Swedenborg had 
never lived, we should still have had a strong impression 
that some additional light was reflected, from this source, 
upon the mysteries of our great future. But Swedenborg 
has lived, has seen, has revealed. He has taken up these phe- 
nomena just at the point where we were compelled to leave 
them, and carrying them forward to the world unseen has 
shown, by astounding disclosures, that they are in perfect 
accordance with the laws and manifestations of that world. 
He has put into our hands the key with which to unlock the 
psychological secrets involved in a state which thousands have 
witnessed, but which, apart from his teachings, not one can 
explain. I again, then, repeat that if Mesmerism is true, Swe- 
denborg is true, and if Swedenborg is true, the spiritual world 
is laid open, and a new and a sublime era has dawned upon 
the earth. We are no longer estranged from the verities of 
the future life. The world of spirits is no longer a land of 
dim shadows peopled with the creatures of our dreams. In 
entering that world we need no longer feel ourselves launch- 
ing forth into a region of vague and doubtful conjecture, of the 
realities of which we have no clear conception. The divine 
hand itself has, in the teachings of this illuminated seer, lifted 
the veil interposed for ages between the world of matter and the 
world of mind. The departure of friends and kindred is 
scarcely any more even a " curtained exit" from the busy 
scenes of earth and time. Heaven and Hell are but states formed 
by the developed characters of the good and the evil, and the 
retributions of eternity the normal issue of confirmed princi- 
ples and rooted loves. The forms of destiny, which result by 
inevitable sequence from the operation of the fixed laws 
of our intellectual and moral nature, stand forth before us as 
the realization of the sternest reason, and not merely as the 
fancy-work of fear or hope. The anticipation of the future 
is rationally deduced from the constitution of the present, 
and the sanctions of the Christian faith receive a tenfold greater 
moral power from the removal of every element of the arbi- 
trary from the allotment which awaits us. Our state of weal 
or woe in the world to come, resulting as it does from imrnu- 



162 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

table laws of being, cannot, by any possibility, be otherwise 
than as we render it by our lives on earth. 

Such are the disclosures unfolded to us in the pages of 
Swedenborg, and .we would with all deference submit the 
question, whether the sublime reported truths, embodied in 
this system, are not worthy of a distinct and special announce- 
ment on the part of infinite wisdom and infinite love ? As it is 
impossible to show that God has precluded himself from the 
vouchsafement of new light upon the subject of human 
destiny, why should we deem ourselves authorized to put a 
virtual limitation upon his prerogatives by a peremptory 
refusal to weigh the evidence of such unveilings as Sweden- 
borg declares himself to have been called and empowered to 
make ? In view of the pre-eminently wonderful nature of 
his disclosures and of their signal confirmations from other 
sources, is it not at least possible that in rejecting them uncon- 
sidered we may be trifling with a message from heaven ? 

Another point of great moment is involved in the results of 
the present investigation. It is well known that with the 
mass of the Christian world Swedenborg has the credit of 
having been insane. His alleged revelations are regarded as 
the outbirth of a deranged intellect. The solution usually 
given of his peculiar mental state is, that he had pondered so 
deeply and absorbingly on the themes connected with the 
other life, that his mind having eventually lost its balance, 
all his abstract speculations embodied themselves in living 
forms and came before him in a kind of phantasmagoria, 
w^hich he was unable to distinguish from a world of actual 
entities. Thus the Rev. Dr. Pond, in his recent work against 
the doctrines of Swedenborg, delivers his judgment concern- 
ing him in the following language : 

" To my own mind the case of Swedenborg is a clear one — 
as clear as, under the circumstances, and with our present 
means of information, could be expected. He was as rational 
as ever, on all subjects except one or two ; and when these 
were not introduced or touched upon, he wrote, he published , 
he appeared in society, much as usual. But in reference to 
these subjects — I mean those pertaining to his revelations, 
his mind was disordered ; it had become unbalanced ; and 



CONCLUSION. 163 

he was, to a degree, insane. There can be no reasonable 
doubt of it. Still, there was method, even in his insanity. 
His spectres did not run riot with him. They followed chief- 
ly in the train of his natural thoughts, giving a sort of per- 
sonal existence and reality to what were before the theories, 
the abstractions, the mere conceptions, of his own mind. 
This theory harmonizes all the known facts in the case of 
Swedenborg ; and to my apprehension it is the only one that 
does. I propose it therefore, and I accept it, as the truth." p. 282. 

Now to say nothing of the compliment paid to the under- 
standing of intelligent men in their cordial reception of his 
disclosures as the very perfection of truth and wisdom, it is 
not to be forgotten, that it is upon precisely those features of 
his revelations which are most strikingly confirmed by the 
facts of Mesmerism that the charge of insanity is founded. 
How then is this charge to be sustained, when the only 
things which he has affirmed respecting the realities of the 
spirit- world, and for affirming which he is written a mad- 
man, are demonstrated to be true by the realities witnessed in 
the present world ? For ourselves we see but one alterna- 
tive. Either the mental facts of Mesmerism must be denied 
to be facts, and that in the face of an amount of testimony 
absolutely overwhelming, or the charge must be retracted. It is 
impossible to sustain it except upon grounds which go di- 
rectly to disprove it ; and it surely will not be rested upon 
any other basis than that adverted to. What evidence has 
Swedenborg given of mental aberration save in his asserted 
converse with spirits and his professed developments of 
their various conditions, of their modes of intercourse, and 
of the sources and forms of their happiness or misery ? 
But the abstract possibility of the translation of a human spirit 
into the world of spirits while sojourning in the body cannot 
be denied except upon assumptions. that would sweep away 
all evidence of a revelation from heaven, for the disclosures 
of that divine Book could not have been given to the world 
had not some of its writers been intromitted into the spiritual 
sphere. The fundamental fact, therefore, of his claim will be 
admitted to be a possible fact, and this admission once made, 
by what species of evidence can it be proved to be a real 



164 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

fact ? Must it not by such revelations respecting the state o 
things in that world as shall approve themselves to the ra- 
tional mind as true ? This truth, though intrinsically capa- 
ble of being apprehended and rested in from its own light, 
may yet be confirmed by testimony drawn from auxiliary 
sources, and especially from discoveries which shall more 
fully lay open the inner constitution and laws of the human 
spirit. Such discoveries, we maintain, are actually made in 
the mental phenomena of Mesmerism, and we claim to have 
shown, in the preceding pages, that their coincidences with 
what Swedenborg has declared on the subject of the condi- 
tions and properties of spirits, are so many and so palpable that 
they cannot be viewed apart from each other. They are not 
so much analogous as identical facts. The proof of the one 
is the proof of the other. Where then is the evidence of 
Swedenborg's insanity ? The imputation has been founded, 
and founded solely, on the incredible character of his state- 
ments. These statements, as far as the nature of the case 
will permit, have been proved to be true. Again then we 
ask what becomes of the charge ? 

But in order to present the matter in a still more forcible 
point of view, and to bring it to a summary test, I will ad- 
duce one of his so-called visions and submit to the reader how 
far it is entitled to be considered as a mere vagary of a dis- 
ordered imagination. 

" Once, when I was meditating about the dragon, the 
beast and the false prophet, which are mentioned in the 
Revelation, an angelic spirit appeared to me, and asked, 
'What are you meditating about?' And I said, c About 
the false prophet.' Then he said, ' I will lead you to the 
place where they are, who are meant by the false pro- 
phet ;' and he said that they are the same that, in the 13th 
chapter of the Revelation, are meant by the beast from the 
earth, which had two horns like a lamb, and spoke like a 
dragon. I followed him, and lo, I saw a crowd, in the midst 
of which were the leaders of the church, who taught that 
nothing saves man, but faith in the merit of Christ; and that 
works are good, but not for salvation; and that still they 
should be taught from the Word, that the laity, especially the 
simple, may be kept more strictly in the bonds of obedience 



CONCLUSION. 165 

to the magistrates, and may be led, as from religion, thus 
more interiorly, to exercise moral charity. And then one of 
them, seeing me, said, ' Do you wish to see our temple, in 
which there is an image representative of our faith ? ' I went 
and saw it; and lo, it was a magnificent edifice, and. in the 
midst of it there was the image of a woman, clothed in a 
scarlet garment, holding in her right hand a golden coin, and 
in her left a chain of pearls ; but both the image and the 
temple were induced by phantasy ; for by phantasies infernal 
spirits can represent magnificent things, by closing the inte- 
riors of the mind, and opening only its exteriors. But when 
I perceiyed that it was such a trick, I prayed to the Lord, and 
suddenly the interiors of my mind were opened ; and then 
I saw, instead of the magnificent temple, a house full of 
chinks, from the top to the bottom, in which nothing co- 
hered ; and I saw in that house, instead of the woman, a 
pendent image, the head of which was like a dragon, the 
body like a leopard, the feet like those of a bear, and the 
mouth like that of a lion ; thus in every respect as the beast 
from the sea is described, Rev. xiii. 2; and in place of a 
floor, there was a quagmire, in which was a multitude of 
frogs ; and it was told me that under the quagmire there was 
a large hewn stone, under which lay the Word, entirely con- 
cealed. On seeing these things, I said to the juggler, ' Is this 
your temple ?' And he said that it was. Bur then suddenly 
his interior sight also was opened, from which he saw the 
same things that I did ; on seeing which, he exclaimed, with 
a loud voice, l What is this? and whence is this ?' And I 
said, ' It is from the light of heaven, which discovers the 
quality of every form, and thus the quality of your faith sepa- 
rate from spiritual charity. 5 And immediately an east wind 
blew, and carried away the temple, with the image, and also 
dried up the quagmire, and thus exposed the stone under 
which lay the Word. And after this, a warmth, like that of 
spring, breathed from heaven ; and lo, then in the same 
place, there was seen a tabernacle, as to the external form 
simple ; and the angels who were with me said, ' Behold the 
tabernacle of Abraham, such as it was when the three angels 
came to him, and told concerning Isaac, who was about to 
be born. This appears to the eyes simple, but still, accord- 
ing to the influx of light from heaven, it becomes more and 
more magnificent.' And it was given them to open the hea- 
ven in which were the spiritual angels, who are in wisdom ; 
and then, from the light thence flowing in, that tabernacle 
appeared like a temple, similar to that at Jerusalem ; and, on 
looking into it, I saw the stone of the foundation, under 
which the Word was deposited, set around with precious 
8* 



166 MESMEU AND SWEDENBORG. 

stones, from which bright rays, like lightning, shone upon 
the walls, upon which were the forms of cherubs, and beau- 
tifully variegated them with colors. When I was admiring 
these things, the angels said, ' You will see something still 
more wonderful.' Then it was given them to open the third 
heaven, in which were the celestial angels, who are in love ; 
and then, from the flammeous light thence flowing in, the 
whole of that temple vanished, and instead of it the Lord 
alone was seen, standing upon the foundation stone, which 
was the Word, in the same form in which he appeared to 
John, Rev. i. But because a holy reverence then filled the 
interiors of the angels' minds, from which they had #n incli- 
nation to fall prostrate on their faces, the way of light from 
the third heaven was closed by the Lord, and a way of light 
from the second heaven was opened ; whence returned the 
former appearance of the temple, and also of the tabernacle, 
but this in the midst of the temple. Hereby was illustrated 
what is meant in the Revelation, xxi., by this passage : The 
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, ver. 
3 : and also by this : I saw no temple in the New Jerusalem, be- 
cause the Lord God Omnipotent is the temple of it, and the Lamb, 
ver. 22."— T. C. R. 187. 

What, I ask, is there in this that I should render it incredi- 
ble as the relation of a bona fide occurrence in the spiritual 
world ? We have already seen that nothing is more frequent 
than such phantastic creations among spirits, and we can 
easily conceive, I think, that the central truth intended to be 
set forth should be represented by the highly significant 
imagery here employed. It is certainly a very striking de- 
scription of the effect produced by a growing influx of hea- 
venly light revealing the interior deformity of a church found- 
ed upon a virtual rejection of the Word, the only true basis of 
such a superstructure. Equally impressive is the shifting 
scenery of the picture developing the Tabernacle and Tem- 
ple, and the superseding of both by the Glory of the Lord, 
as symbolical of the gradual restoration of a pure system of 
worship, of which the Divine Word should be pervading life 
and soul, as well as the exclusive foundation. We see no- 
thing in this in the least inconsistent with what we have al- 
ready gathered to be the laws of mental operation in the oth- 
er life, and consequently nothing which can justly subject the 
author to the charge of venting mere dreams and fancies for 



G0NCLU6I0N. 167 

veritable occurrences in the spirit- world. The same remarks 
apply to multitudes of other relations of similar character 
abounding throughout his writings. Let them be viewed in 
reference to the grand psychological principles involved in 
them, and they imperceptibly become divested of the air of 
extravagance which at first blush they seem to wear, and 
commend themselves more and more to the soundest reason 
of the reader. Yet, I repeat, it is wholly upon narratives of 
this nature that the charge of insanity, so often brought 
against Swedenborg, rests. But why should they give occa- 
sion to it ? Is it not reasonable to suppose that the actual 
facts of the other world would strike us with surprise could 
we witness them as they are ? — that they would be in a thou- 
sand points different from our anticipations ? Yet to a calm 
reflection I imagine it will appear in the highest degree proba- 
ble, that if the spirits and angels of heaven and hell are not 
living, acting, communing, enjoying, and suffering in the pre- 
cise modes which Swedenborg represent, still the real modes 
are marvellously like them. If their very being is intellectu- 
al and spiritual, why should not the scenes in which they 
are engaged be such as are adapted to their nature, or in 
other words, such as Swedenborg has depicted ? One asser- 
tion at least may be confidently made ; — everything he has 
related of that world is in such perfect keeping that, consider- 
ing the grandeur and magnificence of the descriptions, and the 
number, variety, and amplitude of the details, the idea of its 
having emanated from the mind of a madman is the most pre- 
posterous that can be entertained. And how is the wildness of 
the supposition enhanced by the comparison instituted in the 
preceding pages, between the leading features of his revela- 
tions and the undeniable facts of the Mesmeric develop- 
ments ? These developments disclose to the very senses of 
men the fundamental truths of the psychology upon which his 
averments rest. How can the admission of the one be con- 
sistent with the rejection of the other ? And how can that 
admission be refused in the face of all the testimony which 
goes to enforce it ? The affinity of the two classes of dis- 
closures is too palpable to be denied, yet it could not possi- 



168 MESMER AND SWEDENBORG. 

bly have been the result of any collusion between Mesmer 
and Swedenborg. Swedenborg died ten years before Mes- 
mer went to Paris to divulge his discovery, and even Mesmer 
himself knew nothing of the higher mental phenomena to 
which his name has given the appellation. They were dis- 
covered subsequently by one of his disciples. I would ask 
then whether it be possible to account for the coincidences 
except upon the ground of the intrinsic truth of both; and I 
would submit also whether there be not something more 
than a merely plausible basis for the position, that the ultimate 
design, in Providence, of the development of Mesmerism at 
the present era, is in fact nothing less than to pave the way 
for the universal admission of Swedenborg's claims. If these 
claims are well founded they are of an importance which no 
language can describe, for they involve something vastly 
more momentous than even the revelations of the future 
world. They present a new view of the interior genius of 
the inspired Word, and of the whole body of Christian Doc- 
trine — one which offers, we believe, the true and only ground 
on which the jarring creeds of Christendom may be brought 
to a genuine symbolism by the consenting elevation of Chari- 
ty and Life to the prominence hitherto given to Doctrine and 
Faith. Viewed in this light, is it not reasonable to anticipate 
that some striking and palpable authentication should be giv- 
en to the mission of this man of marvels, provided it be in- 
deed of God ? And how could this be more effectually ac- 
complished than by an unexpected and providential discove- 
ry, clearly ascertaining that the psychological structure of the 
human mind and its interior manifestations in the present 
world, are in strict accordance with what Swedenborg, from 
supernatural insight, assures us are the laws of spiritual ex- 
istence in the world to come ? On this basis then we build 
our plea for the truth of a system which we are firmly per- 
suaded embodies the sublime doctrines of the New Jerusa- 
lem, the crown and glory of all the Divine dispensations on 
earth. 



APPENDIX A. 



REVELATIONS OF A. J. r DAVIS. 



In giving the following communication to the world I am 
conscious of exposing myself, in the estimation of many 
minds, to the charge of a weak and easy credulity, which 
may possibly tend to impair the effect of whatever has been 
advanced in the body of the work. Yet the positive truth 
that may distinguish any portion of the previous discussion 
will still remain truth, whatever may be the character of its 
sequel, and as I deem the matter which I am now about to 
present as being as well authenticated as anything previous- 
ly given, and perhaps as intrinsically credible, I do not scru- 
ple to offer it to the reader to be received and interpreted as 
he may see fit. It bears doubtless very much the air of the 
marvellous, not to say of the miraculous, but after what we 
have already seen of the developments of this mysterious 
state, especially in connection with the parallel recitals of 
Swedenborg, we shall perhaps find ourselves prepared to ad- 
mit at least the possibility of just such an occurrence as that 
alleged in the letter to have taken place. It is probably no 
more inconsistent with what we have ever understood to be 
the established laws of the Creator in the government of the 
intelligent universe than many of the facts and principles we 
have already had occasion to consider. Of this, however 
the reader is left to judge for himself. 

The writer, Mr. A. J. Davis, is a young man not far from 
twenty years of age, who is well known to a wide circle as 
a person of remarkable clairvoyant powers in the investiga- 
tion of disease. He is now a resident of this city, and for the 
last two or three years has devoted himself professionally 
for the most part to this business. The exercise, however, 



170 APPENDIX A. 

of his distinguished faculty is not confined to this department. 
In consequence of what he deems a direct communication 
from the spirit of Swedenborg a year or two since — of whose 
name, by the way, or of the fact of his ever having lived, he 
was then entirely ignorant — he was prompted to enter upon 
a course of Lectures in the Mesmeric state on a large class of 
scientific subjects, of which he has thus far delivered about 
eighty, embracing Cosmology, Ethnology, Astronomy, Geolo- 
gy, Physiology, Language, and various others, upon all which 
he is profoundly ignorant in his natural state. He is a young 
man whose educational advantages have been of the most 
limited character, having never enjoyed, from the age of 
childhood, but about five months schooling. Up to the period 
when he entered on his Mesmeric career, he had served as a 
shoemaker's apprentice, and the gentleman in whose employ 
he was is ready at any time to testify to his entire unacquaint- 
ance with the scientific topics of which he has treated in his 
Lectures, and that too on many points, in a truly masterly man- 
ner. Since that date he has been so constantly occupied in 
the examination of diseases and in the Lectures that no time 
has been left him for anything like the connected study 
which would be requisite for such elaborate discussions as 
he goes into on the entire philosophy of the universe, besides that 
he considers himself prohibited by an internal dictate from 
reading a page or a line on any of the subjects of which he 
treats. To these inward monitions, or impressions, as he 
terms them, he uniformly pays a religious deference, and 
as he acts under tbe conviction that his only security for 
his being made the medium of truth, is his own unimpeach- 
able truthfulness and general moral integrity, I am for myself 
perfectly satisfied that entire confidence is to be reposed in 
his statements. Having had for many months a fair oppor- 
tunity of acquaintance, and having closely studied the lead- 
ing traits of his character, I can freely say, that a more sim- 
ple, guileless, unsophisticated spirit I have seldom met, or one 
more utterly incapable of being a party to any scheme of im- 
posture or delusion. He has been from his earliest years 
religiously disposed, and his former employer has certified, 



APPENDIX A. 171 

in the fullest manner, to his uniformly upright and exemplary- 
conduct during the time that he was in his service and an in- 
mate in his family. The same testimony is given by all who 
have known him from a child. Indeed, were his character 
generally, other than it is, I doubt if he would ever have been 
made the medium of such astounding developments as have 
uttered themselves through him. He possesses, both physi- 
cally and mentally, in an eminent degree, the requisites for a 
clairvoyant of the highest order. But it is the less necessary 
for me to dwell upon these traits of his character and his 
claims to credibility, as his Lectures are to be published in 
connection with a voluminous mass of testimony, from the 
most authentic sources, to his absolute incompetency to such 
revelations, except upon the ground of supernatural agency. 
This conclusion will probably be confirmed by the purport of 
the ensuing communication. 

I may here remark in regard to the series of Lectures above 
mentioned, that while I express no opinion as to the absolute 
truth of the scientific principles and positions advanced in 
them, I am fully prepared to bear witness to the fact of his 
making correct use of a multitude of technical terms appro- 
priate to the themes of science, which he is wholly unable to 
define in his waking state, and which would naturally occur 
only to one who had been long familiar with the subjects 
and with their peculiar nomenclature. Indeed, I have been 
sometimes amused at his bungling attempts, on casually read- 
ing the manuscript, even to pronounce accurately the words 
which he utters with entire freedom and correctness in the 
Mesmeric delivery, and which are taken down verbatim by a 
scribe with a view to ultimate publication. I can also testify 
that having been occasionally present at some of these Lec- 
tures, I have heard him quote, with the utmost accuracy, 
from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, of none of 
which has he the least knowledge in his normal condition. 
He has also quoted long extracts from the Sanscrit, the sub- 
stance of which I have been able to verify from a French 
translation of the Vedas. Whether the same thing exists in an 
English version I have not learned. But I am entirely conn- 



172 APPENDIX A. 

dent he has never read it in any translation. At the same 
time, I have no reason to suppose that, even in his preternat- 
ural state he can be fairly said to be acquainted with these 
tongues. He would probably be unable to give the meaning 
of any sentence in a foreign language that might be submitted 
to him by way of experiment. But whatever word or phrase 
may be necessary to the more full elucidation of any point 
which he is explaining, seems to come spontaneously to his 
lips from the same source with the body of the disclosures 
themselves, and that these are suggested or dictated by the 
influx of some other mind into his own is, I think, beyond 
question. But that it is any mind inhabiting a material body, 
which prompts his revelations. I am convinced is not the 
case, for they are often in direct contrariety to all the opin- 
ions which have ever been advanced upon the same subjects, 
and when not contrary they are frequently beyond all that has 
been known to be propounded respecting them. 

Not the least remarkable among the phenomena of the case 
is the fact, that his enunciations from the outset, in this course 
of Lectures, have coincided most astonishingly with those of 
Swedenborg, although he has to this hour never read a page 
of his works, and has never been intimately associated with 
those who have, or who would be capable of determining 
his thoughts in that direction. The two gentlemen who are 
permanently connected with him in his Mesmeric operations 
are both of them nearly as ignorant as himself of the peculiar 
doctrines, philosophical and theological, of Swedenborg, and 
since they have become aware of the fact of the coincidence 
mentioned, they have stifled their curiosity and rigidly ab- 
stained from all recourse to those writings with the express 
design of being able to say, in the issue, that from whatever 
source his information may have been derived, it has not 
come from their minds. As to myself, though I have had 
occasional intercourse with Mr. D. and his associates, yet I 
can in all seriousness affirm, that as soon as I became ac- 
quainted with the fact of these singular coincidences, I at 
once refrained from any but the most remote and general 
allusions to them, usually by way of inquiry, and those gen- 



APPENDIX A. 173 

tlemen will bear me witness that I have not in their presence, 
made Swedenb org's views on these or any other subjects, a 
topic of conversation. With Mr. D. himself I have had but 
few private interviews, and I was then equally guarded for 
the same reason, and also because he intimated that he was 
internally forbidden to make these matters a theme of con- 
versation. I saw at once that if I became an expounder of 
these doctrines, I should deprive his disclosures of the advan- 
tages that would accrue to them in the public estimation 
from the assurance that he had received them from no earth- 
ly source. The following extract from one of his Lectures, 
together with the corresponding passage from Swedenborg, 
will serve to afford the reader a specimen of these singular 
coincidences, which for the most part are real rather than 
verbals 

" The original form was angular. This contained the prin- 
ciple and nature of all other forms : so that from the lowest 
to the highest could be constantly emanating forms accom- 
panied with, and controlled and acted upon by, the Great 
Positive Power. Progression of the angular evolved the cir- 
cular. This assumed, not a spherical constitution, but it was 
a combination of angular and rectilinear plane. Therefore 
the continuance of the angular to the circular, was only a 
progressive perpetual form, ascending to the spiral. And 
this developed diameters, axes and poles containing the per- 
petual angular, and progressed to that of a still higher and 
more perfect form, that of the vortical, properly the celestial." 

" Meanwhile, for the better understanding of the subjects 
mentioned in this chapter, 1 will here state, that forms ascend 
from the lowest to the highest, in order and by degrees, as 
do also the essences and substances of all things. The low- 
est form is the angular ,• which is also called the terrestrial 
and the merely corporeal form, inasmuch as it is peculiar to 
bodies having angles and rectilinear plarles ; the measure- 
ment of which is the primary object of the present geometry. 
The second and next-higher form is the circular, or spherical 
form ; which may also be called the perpetual -angular, since 
the circumference of the circle involves neither angle nor 
rectilinear plane, because it is a perpetual angle and a per- 
petual plane : this form is at once the parent and the mea- 
sure of angular forms ; for it is the means of showing the pro- 
perties of angles and figures, as trigonometry teaches. The 



174 APPENDIX A. 

form above this is the spiral, which is the parent and the 
measure of circular forms, as the circular form is the parent 
and the measure of angular forms. Its very radii or diame- 
ters are not rectilinear, nor do they converge to a fixed cen- 
tre, like those of the circle, but they are variously-circular, 
and have a spherical surface for a centre ; wherefore the spi- 
ral is also called the perpetual- circular. Our science of geo- 
metry rises almost to this form, but dare not enter it, or pe- 
ruse its spires ; for at the first glance it strikes us as inextri- 
cable, and seems to sport with our ideas. This form never 
exists or subsists without poles, an axis, foci, a greatest circle, 
and lesser circles which are its diameters ; and as it again 
assumes a perpetuity which is wanting in the circular form, 
namely, in respect of diameters and centres, therefore it emu- 
lates and breathes a natural spontaneousness in its motion : 
as also appears from the stomach and its segments after 
death, for wrieii its nerves are only touched, it rolls and 
wreathes as in the living subject, and flows spontaneously 
into its gyres, as though it were still hungering, and longing 
to grind the food : there being nothing that can prove an 
obstacle ; inasmuch as there are no angles, and consequently 
no hindrances to motion. There are other still higher forms, 
as the perpetual-spiral, properly the vortical: the perpetual- vor- 
tical, properly the celestial : and a highest, the perpetual- celes- 
tial, which is spiritual, and has in it nothing but what is ever- 
lasting and infinite." — Swed. Anim. Kingd. Vol. I. p. 125. 

A multitude of similar parallelisms will disclose themselves 
in the course of his revelations to one who is familiar with 
Swedenborg, but more especially in his account of the inhabi- 
tants of the several planets. 

The above statements will be seen to have been necessary 
in order to prepare the reader for viewing in its just light the 
revelation that follows. 

Early in June last Mr. D. while in the midst of one of his 
Lectures came to a sudden pause, and remarked that he re- 
ceived no farther impressions — the usual language in which 
he speaks of his internal communications — saying at the 
same time, that he perceived that he must go immediately to 
Poughkeepsie, and that something very extraordinary was 
going to happen to him there. What it was, he was unable 
to say, but observed that it would be known in New York in 
three or four days, and that his associates might freely inform 
others of the fact, but it must be kept from him while in the 



APPENDIX A. 175 

waking state, as it would produce an undue excitement in 
his mind, which he must carefully avoid. His wishes in this 
respect were strictly complied with, and accordingly, shortly 
after, when in the natural state, he announced the purpose 
of starting the next day (Saturday) for Poughkeepsie, though 
he had previously formed an entirely different arrangement 
in regard to an excursion into the country. On Saturday he 
left the city in company with Dr. L. his constant companion, 
and on the Wednesday following — the fourth day from the 
announcement — I received unexpectedly the ensuing letter, 
which I give " with all its " grammatical " imperfections on 
its head." 

Poughkeepsie, June 16th, 1846. 

"Dear Sir: — Yesterday morning, after eating # break fast 
at No. 49 Washington St., where my friend Mrs. Lapham 
lives, I went down to the book store, to get some paper to 

write a letter to ; after buying it, I visited several 

persons about the street, staying only a few minutes at each 
place. Soon I had a desire to go down to the river ; what 
caused it t don't know. But went down, called on one or 
two friends on the way. 

" I soon lost all knowledge where I was, recollect of being 
about the river somewhere, and also ascending a hill. I am 
conscious of meeting the same person that I had seen in the 
graveyard in Hyde Park. I also remember conversing with 
him, and taking out my pencil and writing all the thoughts 
given me. I remember him leaving me suddenly, and I came 
out the state. I was surprised to find myself wet with rain, 
the paper on my lap, and dry — and being in the mountain 
opposite Poughkeepsie, about 4 miles, where I had been be- 
fore, 2 years ago. 

"I came directly home, it was 6 o'clock in the evening, I was 
wet and muddy, and very hungry. The paper had not been 
wet. The very moment 1 came into the natural state, I felt you 
should have the paper immediately. I do not understand 
the meaning, nor the letters A. C. and them figures. It ap- 
pears now that I knew it then, but can't recollect what it was. 
As I felt impressed so strongly to send it to you, I do so, for 
it must be right. 

" The friends here can tell about it. I am at Mrs. Lapham's, 
49 Washington St. If you can tell me about the meaning, 
please write me at the above No. I copy the writing exactly 
from the paper, as written by me then. 

Yours, &c. A. J. DAVIS." 



176 APPENDIX A. 



COPY. 



"Inasmuch as, by causes unrelated, things interior are 
open to me, which appertain to my spirit, as well as to all 
others, and thereby it has been granted me to discourse with 
you, while near our earth ; and to be instructed by you con- 
cerning the opening hereafter, which will lead me to an enlarg- 
ed understanding (of) a plurality of worlds, and to be inform- 
ed, that the human race is not confined to one earth only, but 
extends to earths innumerable ; and that by the things re- 
lated, man may be instructed, if his (being or principle) mind 
be so opened as to be enabled to associate with them under- 
standingly, I observe you are averse to discoursing vocally, 
but instead thereof enter the cerebrum, near the right, where 
the thinking principle, which is above the imagination, is ; 
and farther, all that I hear, see and perceive, are such as de- 
light me, being good and of the Spirit. From your mind, I 
perceive ,that whatever things cause delight, and affect the 
love, and flow as it were spontaneously, is a communica- 
tion of all good things, inasmuch as it is the property of heav- 
enly love to communicate ail its possessions with others ; 
and I perceive that by research in your written thoughts, 
the above can be found in A. C. 549, 550, 1390, 1391, 1399, 
10,130, 10,723. You represent to me three important truths ; 
that all spirits and angels are from the human race, A. C. 
1830; and by them man may be instructed; — for in his es- 
sence he is a spirit, and that the soul is the spirit, which is 
the real man in him, and remains in another life in a perfect 
human form— 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 4622, 4735, 6054, 6605, 
6626, 7021, 10,594. Wherefore he whose interiors are open- 
ed may discourse with them, as man with man ; but not un- 
less he be of true faith, and is led by the principle, A. C. 784, 
9433, 10,751. Moreover, by the truthfulness of the above, 
long made known to your own spirit, a privilege has been 
granted me, now for three years, never before made mani- 
fest, in this manner ; and to know that what has been related 
is above the sensual things of the natural man. From the pur- 
port of your mind, 1 perceive the intended meaning — that truth 
is reflected through my mind into the external ; but that by dif- 
ferent terms (that have been imposed heretofore by specula- 
tive minds, on similar subjects), so that they may form cor- 
rect impressions from the terms used to describe interior 
things. And that all such expressions appearing as material, 
entirely external and speaking of terrestrial laws, is meaning 
only, and that deeply to impress on the logicians and meta- 
physicians the more important essences of interiors — as these 

* The communication, as written, is evidently addressed to what 
he regarded as the spirit of Swedenborg. 



APPENDIX A. 177 

are expressions of the Divine Principle, which flows not only 
into heaven, but also into the universe, and everything made 
thereby the subordinate receptacle of light and life, which is 
love ; and order and form, which is wisdom. Inasmuch as 
these all dwell in the external world, and is (are) constantly ex- 
emplifying the qualities and attributes of the divine love and 
wisdom. Some men do not even proceed to thoughts, but 
stay solely on terms, which if they apply, it is to confirm 
whatever they desire, and to impose on false principles the 
appearance of truth — according to their desire to create a dis 
belief in the future or interior condition. Hence philosophi- 
cal investigations lead men rather to folly than to wisdom, and 
hence they have darkness instead of light. How shall I, 
when in the form, and in the world, let these present say- 
ings of thy spirit become known and be believed? It ap- 
pears manifest ; you have said, that whatsoever spirits there 
be were once men; that every one's life remains with 
him and goes after death, A. C. 4227, 7440 ; and that the ex- 
ternals of life are kept closed after death, and the internals 
opened — 4314, 5128, 6495. These things are not by me 
known, when in the form, but are to others. I receive one 
other impression from you ; the form, the external, is not of 
itself living, only as it is animated by the internal essence ; 
and by it the form is determined, and made alive. Thus the 
body is in constant subordination. On hearing this, from me 
in spirit, the world will be silent ; but will acknowledge, 
(according to your former predictions) that these truths are so. 
The inhabitants of the earth inquire into and imbibe the 
knowledges of things, not elevated above the sensualities of 
the body; this is made manifest by the influx of your spirit. 
Also that men immerse their thoughts in the science of logic 
and metaphysics, with no other end than to acquire the char- 
acter of being learned, and thus to be advanced to honor and 
emolument. 

" I perceive by your spirit, this, for me, is impossible, and 
that I should retain my former and present advice, acting to 
my own interior direction, as given me ; the use in the world 
is not known ; but to me is now manifest ; with promptitude 
my spirit obeys ; and the spirit now on your mind, shall read 
this, judgingiy, from your references, from what sphere your 
spirit is manifested. 

" I observe the illuminated expression of your eye, which 
it is given to know corresponds to understanding, because 
understanding is interior sight, and also to sight and knowl- 
edge of things true and immaterial, 2701, 4410, 4526, 9051, 
10,569." 

This will be perceived to be, upon its bare perusal, some- 



178 APPENDIX A. 

what of a singular document. It embodies a large mass of 
references to the Arcana Celestia of Swedenborg, so often 
quoted in the preceding pages, as it usually is elsewhere, un- 
der the initials A. C, and yet of these letters and of the num- 
bers annexed he professes to be ignorant of the purport. I 
have, moreover, received from him the positive and solemn 
assurance that he had never read a syllable of the Arcana, 
and had never heard of its existence. My surprise on the 
receipt of this letter may well be imagined. My knowledge 
of the young man's character forbade the idea of any inten- 
tional imposture, and yet on the other hand, the contents of 
the paper, under the circumstances in which they were said 
to have originated, forced me to withhold a ready credence 
of the entire transaction. As was natural, I at first sup- 
posed that the references to the Arcana were direct — that they 
were not quoted from any other work — and I proceeded ac- 
cordingly to verify them by an appeal to the sections cited. I 
found upon examination that they were all, with one excep- 
tion correct, and in this case I discovered that the original Lat- 
in of Swedenborg himself contained the same error, which was 
obviously typographical. On farther investigation I found that 
not only the express quotations, but even the whole tenor of 
the letter was contained in almost so many words in the trea- 
tise entitled " The Earths in the Universe." On this discovery 
the inference was almost irresistible, that though he had not 
read the Arcana, yet he had read the other, and had copied 
from it everything that he deemed suitable to his design, what- 
ever that might have been. Still the coincidences, though 
striking and obvious, were not so perfect, as might have been 
expected in an intended copy. There was a singular air per- 
vading it. Portions of it were obscure and mystical, and it 
was still a problem, why it should not have been marked eith 
er by a greater or less conformity to the original. The whole 
matter was a puzzle which I had no clue for solving till I 
should see Mr. D. himself — then absent — and learn whether 
he had ever read or heard of " The Earths in the Universe." If 
I could be satisfied that he had not, the wonder in the case 
would not be at all diminished, for how could he even quote 



APPENDIX A. 179 

quotations of which he had never read either the one or the 
other ? 

In this state affairs remained till Mr. D.'s return to the city 
in September, when I brought the subject before him, and 
interrogated him very closely as to whether he had any 
knowledge of the work in question. He assured me in reply 
that he had never read a page of it — that he knew nothing 
of any such sentiments having been expressed, or references 
made, in that or any other work — and that he was perfectly 
willing to be qualified by the most solemn oath to the effect 
that he had never drawn himself, or been furnished with by 
others, a single sentence from any book known by him to be 
in existence — that what he wrote was written in an uncon- 
scious or abnormal state, as it was mysteriously suggested to 
his mind — in a word, that everything occurred precisely as 
it is related in the letter. 

As I was anxious to render assurance doubly sure, I again 
submitted to him, when in the Mesmeric state, the question of 
the propriety of his being qualified before a magistrate as to 
the truth of the above declarations. He said in reply that 
although he would not refuse to yield to a desire on my part 
to that effect, yet he was impressed that it would not add 
anything to the weight of the testimony growing out of the 
document itself and all the attending circumstances. He 
remarked that the conclusion would very naturally be, that 
if he was unprincipled enough to fabricate such a document, 
he was also unprincipled enough to take a false oath, and 
that the conviction of the genuineness of the article must be 
produced by the evidence which the whole affair, viewed in 
all its aspects, carried with it. This, he intimated, would be 
sufficient for candid minds, without having recourse to a 
kind of testimony that would be regarded by the more judi- 
cious as superficial, and as having the air of an undue anxie- 
ty as to the result. He clearly implied that there was no 
need of resorting to anything that would look like an expe- 
dient of policy, or which would betray a distrust of the in- 
trinsic efficacy of the evidence involved to weigh with those 
who could, under any circumstances, receive it ; and as to 
others, it was unnecessary to cherish any particular solici- 



180 APPENDIX A. 

tude whether it should be believed or not. There was proof 
enough, if their minds were open to appreciate it. In the 
meantime, he observed, that I need not scruple to adopt the 
language of the most positive assurance as to his never hav- 
ing read the work in question, for it was sacredly true, and 
the truth itself would justify any strength of assertion. He 
said, moreover, that the peculiar work he was called to per- 
form was of such a nature as to be inconsistent with the least 
desire for reading, and consequently every such desire had 
been effectually wiped away from his mind. Throughout 
the interview he spoke with a clearness, calmness, and dis- 
cretion which was truly admirable, and elicited expressions 
of wonder from all who were present, as they were perfectly 
satisfied of his utter incapacity to talk in such a style in his 
natural state. And what is remarkable, although 1 had my 
manuscripts with me, from which I wished to propose cer- 
tain queries relative to the correctness of my interpretation, 
I found I had no need to refer to it, as he was evidently, from 
his replies, cognizant of its entire scope from beginning to 
end, though all the time closely bandaged and unable to read 
a word by the outward eye. This will appear incredible, 
but it is strictly true. I had no occasion to refer to a single 
sentence in my papers, for it was evident that he was in pos- 
session of the whole, though he had not seen a line of what 
I had written, nor had previously known of the fact of my 
writing at all 

I am well aware that even this statement will avail but lit- 
tle towards vanquishing the skepticism which such a mar- 
vellous train of incidents must necessarily encounter. I am 
deeply sensible myself of the large draft which it makes upon 
the faith of sober minds. But my own conviction is unwa- 
vering that he has never read the book. Everything, it is 
true, depends upon the judgment formed of the young man's 
veracity. I feel that, on this point, I have no right to claim 
the reader's assent to my conclusions, unless he recognizes a 
satisfactory ground of reliance on the statements made by 
Mr. D. in regard to the fact of his entire ignorance of the con- 
tents of the work in question. Being desirous of securing 



APPENDIX A. 181 

the most effectual guaranty to my own confidence in Mr. D.'s 
assertion on this and other subjects, as well as of justifying 
that confidence to the minds of my readers, I wrote to his for- 
mer employer, requesting from him such a certificate as he 
could freely give, and would be willing to have published, 
respecting young D.'s character while an inmate in his fami- 
ly. The following is his reply : 

Dear Sir — Circumstances have prevented me from giving 
an earlier answer to yours of the 9th inst. than could have 
been desired. 

In regard to A. J. Davis, and your inquiries respecting him, 
I am happy to give the information desired. He was an ap- 
prentice to me, and boarded in my family for nearly two 
years. I was daily and hourly in association with him, and 
under circumstances which enabled me to form a clear and 
perfect estimate of his character, the leading trait of which 
w r as 5 integrity in its broadest and best sense. His education 
was very limited — that, I mean, which is acquired at school 
— but I employed him to keep my books, which improv- 
ed him somewhat in writing and casting accounts.* In 
his own statements you may place the most unbounded con- 
fidence. I never knew him to deceive or equivocate in my 
life. His character before I knew him can be traced in this 
neighborhood from his infancy up to the time he left me like 
the lines on a map, and it is all of a piece. His reading was 
also very limited, and mostly confined to books of a juvenile 
or narrative description. 

Poughkeepsie, Oct. 17, 1846. IRA ARMSTRONG. 

In accordance with what is here said of the limited range 
of his reading, Mr. D. has informed me that previous to the 
date of his earliest magnetic experience, he did not know 
that he had ever read a dozen books in his life, and that 
the only one which had left much impression upon his 
memory was " a story of Three Spaniards f* As to works of 
science, he had never read a single volume ; and when he 
began to speak in his Mesmeric state of the different planets, 
he knew nothing at all of the structure of the solar system. 
Subsequent to that period he has literally had no time for con- 
nected reading or study on any subject whatever, and yet in 
his Lectures above-mentioned, he has discoursed on Astrono- 
my, Geology and General Physics in a style worthy the high- 

9 



182 APPENDIX A. 

est masters in those departments. These are the indubitable 
facts in the case, and it is left to the judgment of the world to 
account for them, which, probably, it will find it somewhat 
difficult to do, except upon grounds that suppose the truth of 
the main positions of this book. 

But, though well assured myself of the claims of Mr. D.'s state- 
ments to entire confidence, arising from the general conscien- 
tious honesty w T hich governs his deportment, yet I do not say 
that this quality exists with him to such a degree as absolutely 
to secure him from the inroads of false impressions. I would 
not, therefore,be understood as expressing a willingness to en- 
dorse the intrinsic truth of all that he utters hi his Lectures.* I 
am taught by Swedenborg that a large portion of the influences 
from the spiritual world are delusive, and that a true faith as 
to the grand doctrines of Christianity, together with a right 
moral posture of the inner man, are indispensable to a safe 
communion with spirits and to the trustworthiness of the re- 
ports that may be made from their sphere. Now I am not 
sufficiently acquainted with Mr. D.'s character in this respect 
to feel a full assurance of his immunity from error in this 
species of communication. I cannot penetrate to the real 
state of his affection and thought and thus ascertain the na- 
ture and degree of his moral affinities. I should not, how- 
ever, be at all surprised if it were such as to lay the founda- 
tion for a mixture of truth and falsity in his utterances. This 
question remains to be decided by the issue. I am only sure 
of one thing — that the young man is actually the medium of 
comnrunieations made by prompting spirits of the other 



* Of these Lectures I have heard two or three delivered, and 
have heard read from the manuscript parts of forty or fifty more. 
They are certainly very extraordinary for the extent of ground 
they occupy — touching upon nearly all the great themes of human 
knowledge — and for the soundness of the conclusions on subjects 
of which he was previously utterly ignorant. In ordinary circum- 
stances it would be impossible for such topics to be treated, even 
as ably as he has treated them, without a wide range of reference 
to books. In this case I am positive he has consulted no books 
whatever. I can scarcely expect this will be believed upon my 
assertion, neverthless it is unquestionably true. 



APPENDIX. 183 

world. I am satisfied that nothing else will account for the 
facts in his case. Still, for aught I know, the folio whig re- 
marks of Jung Stilling may be applicable to him : — ■** The 
elevation, the exalted feeling, the new discoveries, the en- 
lightened insight, convince the individual that what is 
passing in him is a very peculiar operation of the Holy Spi- 
rit ; but believe me, assuredly and confidently, that this is 
not (necessarily) the case. Such an one may certainly say 
excellent and very useful things, and even be the means of 
really doing good ; but before the man is aware, a false spi- 
rit, in the guise of an angel of light, mixes itself in the mat- 
ter, and the poor creature is deceived," — Pneumatology, p. 
209. 

This however can only be hypothetically suggested in 
the present case. I do not venture to say in regard to Mr. D. 
that he is deceived or deluded, but simply that if, after utter- 
ing so much that is in accordance with Swedenborg's doc- 
trines, he should utter other things that are contrary to them, 
Swedenborg himself has given us the key by which to solve 
such an apparent paradox. Some secret and lurking error 
of life or faith gives advantage to spirits of delusion to flow 
into his mind and falsify his impressions of truth. And let me 
here say that it is in the highest degree remarkable, that 
while Swedenborg himself is generally reputed to have been 
the victim of the wildest hallucinations, he has in fact devel- 
oped more clearly than any one has ever done before, the 
sources and causes of all kinds of spiritual delusions, and thus 
enabled us to be on r our guard against the various forms offal- 
lacy which are frequently evinced in the Mesmeric state. Let 
the reader recur to the previous chapter on Phantasy and that 
which treats of Swedenborg's State psychologically considered, 
and he will find ample proof of the truth of this remark. 

That Mr.D. has in some way come, in his disclosures, into 
a singular relation to the philosophy and psychology of Swe- 
denborg is, I think, beyond a question. Equally clear do I 
consider it that this is not the result of design on his part 
How could he have designed it when he had previously not 
the slightest knowledge of his system, and when, to this day, 



184 APPENDIX A. 

he has not read a page of his works ? Whatever he has ad- 
vanced in common with him has been the result of some 
mysterious influence upon his spirit, over which he has had 
no control. How this has happened I assume not to say. 
Previous to the indications of the fact, there is not the slight- 
est evidence that he had ever heard the name of Swedenborg, 
and it was only from an internal suggestion or impression 
that he was enabled to mention it. Yet it is certain that he 
has accurately reproduced many of his leading ideas, and the 
presumption would be that in all important points he would 
agree with him. But I do not know that this is the case. 
It is not unlikely that his Lectures, in several particulars, go 
counter to the doctrines of Swedenborg, though I believe it 
will be found that they mainly accord with them in spirit 
and scope. But if such a discrepancy should be found to 
exist in regard to certain points, there can of course be no 
hesitation with the receivers of Swedenborg which to accept 
and which to refuse. The contrary reports of ten thousand 
clairvoyants would not shake an iota of their confidence in 
the paramount truth of what their illuminated teacher has af- 
firmed on the same subjects. 

But I have thus far merely asserted without exhibiting the 
remarkable correspondence between the general scope of the 
letter and that of certain portions of the " Earths in the Uni- 
verse." This I now proceed to display at some length, re- 
minding the reader that the core of the marvel is in the fact 
that he is quoting, in a great degree verbatim, from a work 
not one page of which had ever come under his eye. 

"Inasmuch as, by causes unrelated, things interior are 
open to me which appertain to my spirit, as well as to all 
others, and thereby it has been granted me to discourse with 
you while near our earth, and to be instructed by you con- 
cerning the opening hereafter which will lead me to an en- 
larged understanding (of) a plurality of worlds, and to be 
informed that the human race is not confined to one earth 
only, but extends to earths innumerable — 

In like manner the " Earths in the Universe " commences 
thus : — "Inasmuch as, by the divine mercy of the Lord, things 



APPENDIX A. 185 

interior are open to me, which appertain to my spirit, and thereby it 
has been granted me to discourse not only with spirits and angels 
who are near our earth, but also with those who are near 
other earths ; and whereas I had a desire to know whether 
other earths exist, and of what sort they are, and what is the 
nature and quality of their inhabitants, therefore it has been 
granted me of the Lord to discourse and converse with spirits 
and angels who are from otlrer earths, with some for a day, 
with some for a week, and with some for months ; and to be 
instructed by them concerning the earths, from which, and 
near which, they were ; and concerning the lives, and cus- 
toms, and worship, of the inhabitants thereof, with various 
other things worthy to be noted : and whereas in this manner 
it has been granted me to become acquainted with such 
things, it is permitted to describe them according to what has 
been heard and seen." — E. Z7. 1. So again in another passage. 
" That there are several earths, and men upon them, and 
thence spirits and angels, is a thing most perfectly well known 
in another life, for it is there granted to every one who desires 
it from a love of truth and consequent use, to discourse with 
the spirits of other earths, and thereby to be confirmed concern- 
ing a plurality of worlds, and to be informed, that the human race 
is not confined to one earth only, but extends to earths innumerable ; 
and moreover to know, what is the particular genius, man- 
ner of life, and also divine worship, prevailing amongst the 
inhabitants of each particular earth." — E. Z7. 2. 

— and that by the things related man may be instructed if 
his (being or principle) mind be so opened as to associate 
with them understanding] y. 

This is evidently responsive to the last paragraph of No. 1 of 
the E. U. : " It is to be observed, that all spirits and angels are 
from the human race ; and that they are near their respective 
earths ; and that they are acquainted with things on those 
earths ; and that by them man may be instructed, if his interiors be 
so open as to be enabled to speak and converse with them / for man 
in his essence is a spirit and together with spirits as to his 
interiors ; wherefore he whose interiors are opened by the 



186 APPENDIX A. 

Lord, may discourse with them, as man with man; which 
privilege has been granted me now for twelve years daily." 
A singular usage will be noticed in the above, of the inter- 
jected clause, " being or principle," as if synonymous with 
" mind." Now it is remarkable that this very phrase, enclosed 
in brackets, is of repeated occurrence in the E. U. as a sup- 
plied translation of the original word " Divinum," which is 
applied to the Deity without a substantive. Thus, " What 
w^ould this be to the Divine (being or principle) which is in- 
finite ?" " They adore the Divine (being or principle) not as 
invisible, but as visible, for this reason amongst others, that be- 
cause when the Divine (being or principle) appears to them, 
&c." It is evidently in the document applied to the human 
essence, as it is by Swedenborg to the divine. 

I observe you are averse to discoursing vocally, but instead 
thereof, enter the cerebrum near the right, where the think- 
ing principle, which is above the imagination, is; — 

Here the parallelism is obvious. " They are averse to dis- 
course consisting of vocal expressions, because it is material, 
wherefore when I conversed with them without interme- 
diate spirits,! could only do it by a species of active thought. 
Their memory as consisting of things, not of images purely 
material, affords a nearer supply of its objects to the thinking 
principle ; for the thinking principle, which is above the imagina- 
tion, requires for its object, things abstracted from material." — 
E. U. 17. 

— and farther, all that I hear, see, and perceive are such as 
delight me, being good and of the Spirit. From your mind I 
perceive that whatever things cause delight, and affect the 
love, and flow as it were spontaneously, is a communication 
of all good things — 

"Hence also it may appear manifest, that spirits have 
memory, and that it is much more perfect than the mem- 
ory of men ; and farther, that what they hear, see, and per- 
ceive, they retain, and especially such things as delight them, as 
these spirits are delighted with knowledges ; for whatever 
things cause delight,, and affect the lave, these flow in as it were spon- 



APPENDIX A. 187 

taneously, and remain ; other things do not enter, but only 
touch the surface and pass by." — E. U. 14. 

— inasmuch as it is the property of heavenly love to com- 
municate all its possessions with others — 

The coincidence here is verbal; the parallel passage hi 
Swedenborg is contained in a note to No. 15, which reads 
thus : — " That in the heaven there is given a communication of 
all good things, inasmuch as it is the property of heavenly love to com- 
municate all its possessions with others ; and that hence the an- 
gels derive wisdom and happiness, n. 549, 550, 1390, 1391, 
1399, 10,130, 10,723."— E. U. 15 n. k. 

— and I perceive that by research in your written thoughts 
the above can be found in A. C. 549, 550, 1390, 1391, 1399, 
10,130, 10,723. 

These, it will be observed, are the very references cited in 
the note given above, so that it is impossible to resist the in- 
ference, that they were either copied directly from the work 
in question, by means of material hands and eyes, or the pas- 
sage was transferred from some mind upon whose memory it 
was impressed, as upon a tablet, to that of Davis, according to 
the law of communication between the memories of spirits 
as laid down in our previous chapter on that subject. We 
have already adverted to the considerations which weigh 
against the former, theory, and what Swedenborg teaches on 
the subject decidedly favors the idea of a mysterious mental 
transcription. He thus speaks of Memory in the other life. 
" Ideas, which are of the memory, are various ; as the idea 
of a person, namely, whatever has been heard concerning 
him, or whatever was seen about him, which was observed 
whilst speaking with him, also what then was thought about 
him, as well good thoughts as bad thoughts, — all ideas re- 
main, and more than the man himself was ever conscious of 
which appeared to him as though he had not observed them. 
All those ideas remain, and are presented in the other life to- 
gether, or in a moment, when any one is thought of. 

" Ideas also of places are presented together, and with 
them all things which happened there ; these things adhere 



188 APPENDIX A. 

to the memory of the place, and are presented at th,e same 
time, together with a thousand particulars. Ideas of things, 
in like manner, as of scientific things, and such like, remain : 
whatever a man has learnt and thought concerning any sub- 
ject, is presented at the same time, thus more fully, when he 
has thought more concerning the subject. 

" That more things enter into a man's ideas than the man 
himself is aware of, was shown from this circumstance, — ■ 
that when I was walking in the street of a city, or in a grove, 
it was said, that the things which I merely glanced at, and 
scarcely observed, nevertheless adhered to me, and could be 
recalled ; in like manner concerning persons and things." — S. 
D. 4553-4556. These impressions, thus remaining, are instan- 
taneously transferred from one spirit's mind to that of another. 

You represent to me three important truths ; — that all spir- 
its and angels are from the human race, A. C. 1880, — 

This is but another form of the first note in the E. U. — - 
" That there are no spirits and angels, but what were of the hu- 
man race, n. 1880." 

— and by them man may be instructed ; for in his essence 
he is a spirit, and that the soul is the spirit, which is the real 
man in him, and remains in another life, in a perfect human 
form— 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 4622, 4735, 6054, 6605, 6626, 
7021,10,594. 

Here again we have the words of the third note to No. 1 , n. c. 
of the E. U. ; — " That the soul, which lives after death, is the spirit 
of man, which is the real man in him, and also appears in another 
life in a perfect human form," n. 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 4622, 
4735, 6054, 6605, 6626, 7021, 10,594. It will be noticed that 
Davis uses the word " remains " instead of " appears," which 
is the term found in the common translation. Why this va- 
riation if one was copied manually from the other ? When 
the whole passage, except this word, is given verbatim, what 
object was to be gained by altering this ? The same remark 
is applicable to several other similar cases that will be no- 
ticed in the sequel. 



AEPENDIX A. 189 

— wherefore lie whose interiors are opened may discourse 
with them as man with man, but not unless he be of true 
faith and is led by the principle, A. C. 784, 9438, 10,751. 

This is at once referred to the following : " That man is 
capable of discoursing with spirits and angels, and that the 
ancients on our earth did frequently discourse with them, n. 
67, 68, 69, 784, 1634, 1636, 7802. But that at this day it is 
dangerous to discourse with them, unless man be in a true faiths 
and be led of the Lord," n. 784, 9438, 10,751.— £. U. l,n. e. 
The reason of the use of the word " principle" for " Lord" 
has already been explained. 

Moreover, by the truthfulness of the above, long made 
known to your own spirit, a privilege has been granted me 
now for three years, never before made manifest in this man- 
ner ; and to know (that) what has been related is above the 
sensual things of the natural man. 

The idea, though obscurely expressed, undoubtedly is, 
that in accordance with the truth of what Swedenborg says 
respecting the possibility of spirits communicating with men 
on earth, he had himself been privileged, for three years past, 
to enjoy this intercourse, and was thereby made cognizant of 
truths which transcend the grasp of the merely sensual or 
natural man — an intimation perfectly in the style of Sweden- 
borg when speaking of the principles and properties of our 
nature. 

From the purport of your mind I perceive the intended 
meaning ; that truth is reflected through my mind into the 
external — 

That is, that the influx of spiritual light and truth which 
flows into my mind is reflected or made manifest by coming 
into expression through the external organs of speech. 

— but that by different terms (that have been imposed here- 
tofore by speculative minds on similar subjects), so that they 
(i. e. men in general) may form correct impressions from the 
terms used to describe interior things — ■ 

Here, again, the true sense is somewhat enigmatical ; but 
as far as I can gather its scope, it is, that the peculiar language 
ox diction which he employs, though differing from that which 
9* 



190 APPENDIX A. 

has been for the most part adopted by the learned, is yet not 
without a precedent, inasmuch as certain writers of " specu- 
lative minds" have, in treating of " similar subjects," sought 
to adapt their terminology to the intrinsic nature of the themes 
of their discussion, and that for the purpose of conveying 
more correct ideas of the interior essences of things. I infer 
this from the evident allusion in the passage to what Sweden- 
borg says of Aristotle in the other life : — " From the purport 
of his discourse, I perceived that he was altogether of a dif- 
ferent genius and temper from those schoolmen who first as- 
cended, in that he wrote from a ground of thought and dis- 
cernment in himself, and thence produced his philosophical 
discoveries ; so that the terms which he invented and which he im- 
posed on speculative subjects, were forms of expression by which he 
described interior things.''' — E. U. 38. That the allusion is to the 
passage now quoted, I think there can be no doubt, and 
the drift of the writing seems to be, that we are warranted 
by this example to endeavor, if possible, to adopt a phrase- 
ology in speaking of these spiritual and transcendental themes 
which shall be more aceordant with their real nature than 
that usually employed. Indeed, the general scope of this- 
part of the document seems to be to vindicate the propriety 
of the peculiar diction of which he, from the influx of Swe- 
denborg's mind, makes use in this, and perhaps also in his 
other communications. It is consequently a justification, at the 
same time, of Swedenb org's peculiar style, of which com- 
plaints are frequently made by those who do not fully appre- 
ciate the genius of his revelations. Those who do, are per- 
fectly satisfied with it. 

— and that ail such expressions appearing as material, en- 
tirely external, and speaking of terrestrial laws,, is (are) mean- 
ing only, and that deeply to impress on the logicians and 
metaphysicians the more important essences of interiors — 

Before attempting to determine the precise import of thi& 
sentence, I will refer to what Swedenborg says of certain 
spirits who were present with him while writing and explain- 
ing the Word as to its internal sense. " These," he says, 



APPENDIX A. 191 

"perceived what I wrote, and said that the things which I 
wrote were very gross, and that almost all the expressions ap- 
peared as material:' — E. U. 27. And as these spirits had re- 
lation to the memory of things abstracted from what is ma- 
terial, therefore, " when any one discourses with them con- 
cerning things terrestrial, corporeal, and merely worldly, they are 
unwilling to hear." — E. TJ. 31. On the whole, I infer this as 
the tenor of the paragraph — that all these apparently gross and 
material expressions, founded upon the outward aspects of 
things, are, in the true and spiritual use of them, " meaning 
only," that is, possessed of a soul, as it were, an internal life 
and efficacy of import, compared with which the more obvi- 
ous or outward meaning can scarcely be termed a meaning 
at all. On the contrary, such terms drawn from material ob- 
jects, when seen in their just relation to internal essences, are 
nothing but meaning. The idea which is doubtless intended 
to be conveyed in this paragraph may be illustrated by the 
following extract from the E. U. which occurs in the same 
connection with the passages we have already quoted : — 
" Afterwards I represented to them birds of different sizes, 
both large and small, such as exist on our earth ; for in an- 
other life such things may be represented to the life ; when 
they saw the birds represented they were disposed at first 
to change them, but afterwards they were delighted with 
them and seemed satisfied ; the reason was, because birds 
signify the knowledges of things, and the perception of this 
signification flowed in also at that instant ; thus they desisted 
from transmuting them, and thereby from averting the ideas 
of their memory. Afterwards it was allowed to represent be- 
fore them a most pleasant garden full of lamps and lights ; 
instantly they paused, and their attention was fixed, by reason 
that lamps withlights signify truths which are lucid by virtue of 
good. Hence it was made manifest that their attention might 
be fixed in viewing things material, if the signification of 
those things in a spiritual sense was but insinuated at the 
same time; for the things appertaining to such spiritual 
sense are not so abstracted from things material, being repre- 
sentative thereof." Here it is seen how things external, cor- 



192 APPENDIX A. 

poreal, and terrestrial are resolved into interior essences, and 
consequently the terms by which they are ordinarily ex- 
pressed acquire a new fulness of import, which renders them, 
as it were, " meaning only ;" the common terms seem to dis- 
appear, and the interior sense only remains. Mr. D. further 
adds, that the conviction of this truth will not fail to produce its 
due impression upon logicians and metaphysicians in their 
researches into the deeper departments of our nature, and es- 
pecially as to the most appropriate language with which to 
clothe their ideas. 

— as these are the expressions of the Divine principle which 
flows not only into heaven, but also into the universe, and 
everything (is) made thereby the subordinate receptacle of 
light and life which is love, and order and form which is 
wisdom ; — 

The parallelism here, though not so obvious as in some 
other cases, is still to be detected, as the reader will see from 
the following passage, hi which Swedenborg is still speaking 
of Aristotle. " He next showed me what idea he. had con- 
ceived of the Supreme Deity, viz. that he had represented 
Him to his mind as having a human face, and encompassed 
about the head with a radiant circle ; and that now he knew 
that the Lord himself is that Man, and that the radiant circle 
is the Divine principle proceeding from Him, which not only flows 
into Heaven, but also into the universe, disposing and ruling all 
things therein" The coincidences and the discrepancies in 
the two paragraphs are obvious. The latter are mainly ver- 
bal. The purport is not difficult of apprehension after what 
we have already said by way of explanation of that which has 
preceded ; and to the reader familiar with Swedenb org's the- 
osophy, it becomes at once not only intelligible but luminous. 
According to his sublime discoveries, the whole universe is 
an outbirth of the Divine Love and Wisdom. All material 
forms are mere receptacles of the influx of these Divine prin- 
ciples, and thus constitute their expression, according to the 
law of Correspondences which Swedenborg has so strikingly 
developed. This is still more evident from what follows : — 



APPENDIX A. 193 

—inasmuch as these all dwell in the external world, and 
is (are) constantly exemplifying the qualities and attributes 
of the Divine Love and Wisdom. 

That is, these principles of light and life, order and form, 
dwell or inhere in the external world, with all its varied con- 
tents, and continually " exemplify" or illustrate and set forth 
the all-pervading, all-animating, all-sustaining attributes of 
the Divine Love and Wisdom. That this is the universal 
teaching of Swedenborg throughout his works no one needs 
to be informed who is at all acquainted with them. 

Some men do not even proceed to thoughts, but stay sole- 
ly on terms, which, if they apply, it is to confirm whatever 
they desire, and to impose upon false principles an appear- 
ance of truth, according to their desire to create a disbelief in 
the future or mterior condition. Hence philosophical investi- 
gations lead men to folly rather than to wisdom, and hence 
they have darkness instead of light. 

The coincidence in this case is all but absolutely verbal. 
Swedenborg is still speaking of Aristotle, of whom, by the 
way, he remarks, that he " is amongst sound and sober spirits 
in the other life, while several of his followers are amongst 
the infatuated." Of him he says, that " he was excited to 
such pursuits by a delight of affection, and by a desire of 
knowing the things appertaining to the thinking and intellec- 
tual faculties, and that he followed obediently whatever his 
spirit had dictated; wherefore he applied himself to the 
right ear, contrary to the custom of his followers, who are 
called the schoolmen, and who do not go from thoughts to 
terms, but from terms to thoughts, thus in a contrary way ; 
and several of them do not even proceed to thoughts, but stick solely 
in terms, which, if they apply, it is to confirm whatever they desire, 
and to impose on false principles an appearance of truth, according 
to their eagerness to persuade others. Hence philosophical investiga- 
tions lead them rather to folly than to wisdom, and hence they have 
darkness instead of light" — E. U. 38. This must certainly be 
pronounced very remarkable, in case it is not an actual tran- 
script on the part of Davis from the words of Swedenborg. 
But if it be, why did he vary from the original in writing 



194 APPENDIX A. 

" stay solely on terms " instead of " stick solely in terms ;" and 
why did he substitute " according to their desire to create a 
disbelief in the future or interior condition," instead of " ac- 
cording to their eagerness to persuade others ?" These are 
indeed points of little intrinsic importance, but in a case of 
this kind, it is by such minor items that our judgment is often 
determined. If the whole was copied, why this strange va- 
riation in particulars? What object was to be gained by it? 
It obviously could not be to disguise a plagiarism, for this 
would be detected by the verbal conformity of the other 
parts. It is clear that, on any hand, there is no escape from 
an astounding puzzle. 

How shall I, when in the form, and in the world, let these 
present sayings of thy spirit become known and be believed ? 

The phrase " in the form " is one that Mr. D. frequently 
uses in his clairvoyant state to denote the normal or waking 
condition in contradistinction from the abnormal or sleeping, 
if the term sleep can with any propriety be applied to a state 
of such intellectual elevation and activity. The usage seems 
to go on the tacit implication, that in that state the substance, 
or the soul, can scarcely be said to be in the form, or the body. 
The governing idea is clearly Swedenborgian. 

It appears manifest ; you have said that whatever spirits 
there be were once men ; that every one's life remains with him 
and goes after death, A. C. 4227, 7440 ;* and that the externals 
of life are kept closed after death, and the internals opened, 
4314, 5128, 6495. 

The identity of this with the following extracts is apparent 
at once : — " It is to be observed that all angels and spirits what- 
soever were once men ; for the human race is the seminary of 
Heaven ; also, that the spirits are altogether such, as to affec- 
tions and inclinations, as they were during their life in the world 
whilst men ; for every one's life follows him into another world" 

* This is the only erroneous reference in the whole. The num- 
ber containing the proof in question is 7439 ; but the error, which 
is doubtless a typographical one, occurs in the Latin, and runs 
through all the translations. 



APPENDIX A. 195 

Appended to the above is the following marginal note : — 
" That every man's life remains with him and follows him after death, 
n. 4227, 7440. That the externals of life are kept closed after death, 
and the internals opened, n. 4314, 5128, 6495.— E. U. 30. Here 
again is a slight but, as usual, confounding verbal variation 
of " goes " for "follows." The coincidence otherwise is exact. 

These things are not by me known when in the form, but 
are to others. 

The inquiry, it will be recollected, was made just above, 
how the requisite faith might be produced in these revela- 
tions. The question is here answered. He is enabled to 
state important facts in regard to man's future condition 
which are entirely unknown to him when in the natural 
state, but which are known to others, that is, to those who 
receive Swedenborg's declarations on the subject. If they are 
satisfied that he has acquired this intelligence without a pre- 
vious acquaintance with his writings, they at least will have 
a full assurance that he is entitled to credit, for in what way 
can it be supposed that he has been enabled to make these 
statements, if he has not derived them from supernatural sug- 
gestion ? His truth here is a pledge for his truth in other 
respects. 

I receive one other impression from you ; the form, the ex- 
ternal, is not of itself living only as it is animated by the in- 
ternal essence ; and by it the form is determined and made 
alive. 

How perfectly accordant this is with the general teaching of 
Swedenborg the following extracts evince : — " I added that 
several in this earth do not know that it is the internal man 
which acts on the external, and causes the external to live ; and that 
they persuade themselves from the fallacies of the senses, 
that the body has life, and that in consequence thereof, such as 
are wicked and unbelieving entertain doubts respecting a life 
after death." — E. TJ. 27. " It is a fallacy of sense, that the 
body alone lives, and that its life perishes when it dies ; the 
sensual does not at all apprehend that the internal man is in 
each single thing of the external ; and that the internal man is 



196 APPENDIX k. 

within nature in the spiritual world, (i. e. in a sphere interior 
to outward nature)." " Man leaves nothing at all behind him 
at death but only bones and flesh, which, while he lived in 
the world, were not animated by themselves , but by the life of his 
spirit" — A. C. 2475. The same truth is taught in hundreds of 
other passages. How came an unlettered youth, recently 
from a shoemaker's bench, to utter this profound philosophy ? 

Thus the body is in constant subordination. 

The parallel to this is to be found in the following passage 
of another work : — " The mind, that is, the will and the un- 
derstanding, actuates the body and all things of it at pleasure. 
Does not the body do whatever the mind thinks and wills ? 
The mind erects the ears for hearing, directs the eye for see- 
ing ; the mind moves the tongue and lips to speaking; it ac- 
tuates the hands and fingers to doing whatever it pleases, and 
the feet to walk whither it will. Is the body thus anything but 
obedience to the mind ?"—D. L. § W. 387. 

On hearing this from me in spirit (i. e. while in a spiritual 
state), the world will be silent ; but will acknowledge (ac- 
cording to your former predictions) that these truths are so. 

A corresponding passage to this is the following : — " On 
hearing this they were silent, inasmuch as by a perception then 
given them, they acknowledged it was so." — U. E. 39. It of course 
remains to be seen how far this emphatic intimation of the 
effect of his disclosures upon the world will be verified by 
the result. That the specific truths to which he here partic- 
ularly alludes will be ere long much more universally ac- 
knowledged, I have for myself not the least doubt. The in- 
terjected clause — " according to your former predictions" — al- 
ludes to what Mr. D. affirms to have been said by Sweden- 
borg to him in a former interview, of which he has written 
out a minute account that will probably be one day given to 
the world. It is a narrative of facts, or of what he alleges to 
be facts, no less remarkable than anything which we are 
now detailing to the reader. Time alone, however, can 
determine how far the evidence of the truth of the revela- 
tions shall silence the voice of incredulous reproach. 



APPENDIX A. 197 

The inhabitants of the earth inquire into and imbibe the 
knowledges of things not elevated above the sensualities 
of the body ; this is made manifest by the influx of your 
spirit. 

The source of this is obvious from what is said in the fol- 
lowing passage respecting spirits of an opposite character to 
that of the mass of men on earth : — " With what eagerness 
they inquire into and imbibe the knowledges of things, such as 
appertain to the memory elevated above the sensualities of the 
body, was made manifest to me from this circumstance, 
&c." — E. U. 13. As to the remaining clause — "this is made 
manifest by the influx of your spirit" — the import doubt- 
less is, that the inflowing of Swedenborg's spirit into his, and 
bringing to view the essential nature of spiritual and heaven- 
ly things, revealed an immense contrast between these sub- 
jects and those which constitute the leading themes of hu- 
man inquiry. 

Also, that men immerse their thoughts in the science of 
logic and metaphysics with no other end, than to acquire the 
character of being learned, and thus to be advanced to honor 
and emolument. 

Every one must be struck with the verbal correspondence 
of this with what Swedenb org says of a class of spirits which 
he encountered in the other w T orld : — " They spake with me, 
saying, that they were logicians and metaphysicians, and 
that they had immersed their thoughts in the sciences of logic and 
metaphysics with no other end, than to acquire the character of being 
learned, and thus to be advanced to honor and emolument" — E. U. 38, 

I perceive by your spirit this', for me, is impossible ; and 
that I should retain my former and present advice, acting 
(according) to my own interior direction as given me. 

The idea I take to be, that he is assured by a certain in- 
describable impression upon his mind, that this whole train 
of disclosure is in itself something that entirely transcends 
his own unassisted powers, and that he can only accomplish 
it by yielding an implicit obedience to the internal promptings 
by which he has been governed from the outset, as I have 



198 APPENDIX A. 

already remarked that it was in consequence of an express 
direction which he affirms that he received from Sweden- 
borg that he entered upon his present course of revelations. 

The use in the world is not known, but to me is now man- 
ifest ; with promptitude my spirit obeys ; and the spirit now 
on your mind shall read this, judgingly, from your referen- 
ces, from what sphere your spirit is manifested. 

The grand providential design of these singular develop- 
ments is not, at present, seen or appreciated by the world at 
large ; nor have I been myself hitherto competent to appre- 
hend it. But in consequence of the light now let in upon my 
mind, that design is fully manifested, and I cheerfully yield 
myself as an instrument by whom it is to be accomplished. 

The latter clause of the above was a complete riddle till I 
recently submitted it to Mr. D. himself for a solution. He re- 
plied that for a particular reason the impression upon his 
mind, as to the scope of this sentence, was made to remain 
after he came into his natural state, and that it had special 
relation to myself. I give the explanation as he gave it to 
me, simply with the view of making his language intelligible, 
and not from self-complacency at being unconsciously mixed 
up in such a mysterious train of incidents. He said he clear- 
ly perceived that I was on the mind of Swedenborg at the 
time, and that it was in consequence of this that he felt the 
strong and irresistible impulse to send the paper immediate- 
ly to me, which he did as soon as he had copied it.* By " the 
spirit now upon your mind " therefore is meant " the spirit 
now in your thoughts," and this he says, was no other than 
myself. I, it seems, was to read the communication, and by 

* Mr. D. still retains the original, which I have seen, and which 
is beautifully written, though in pencil. It is in a style of calligra- 
phy far superior to that which marks his ordinary manuscript. This 
is remarkable as it was written in the woods, where he had no 
convenience of table or seat. How he was enabled to execute it 
in such a style he does not know ; all he knows is, that when he 
came to himself he found it on his lap. As to its not having been 
wet, this he afterwards explained when in the Mesmeric state, by 
saying it was written in a kind of cave, which however did not af- 
ford sufficient shelter to protect his person from the rain. 



APPENDIX A. 199 

an investigation of the references was to form a judgment of the 
source from which it emanated. This I have certainly under- 
taken in this portion of the work, and that too in a manner 
very accordant with the tenor of the words ; yet I entered 
upon the task before being at all aware of the import which 
he says belongs to the expressions. It must be confessed 
that the interpretation makes a very consistent sense when 
compared with the result, and I know no reason to reject it, 
though far from aspiring to, or previously dreaming of, the 
honor of being in any way a party to such a marvellous 
transaction. The exact scope of the final clause — " from 
what sphere your spirit is manifested " — I was not certain of 
having grasped till I submitted it to Mr. D. in the transic state, 
who remarked that the import was, that I should be enabled to 
judge, all things considered, and especially from the references, 
whether the contents of the communication emanated from a 
spirit in a material body, or whether it was to be referred to 
one hi a higher sphere, or state, for by " sphere" in this con- 
nection, he observed, is to be understood a state, and a state 
implying a certain degree of spiritual exaltation. As to the 
general question, whether the origin of the document was nat- 
ural or supernatural, my conclusion, as the reader will have 
seen, is unequivocally in favor of the latter hypothesis. But 
as to the particular, or what I may term the personal, source, 
I am far from being decided. 

Mr. Davis himself is very confident, from the impression 
made on his mind, that the spirit with whom he conversed 
was the veritable Swedenborg himself, and I have all along 
spoken as adopting his view. Yet from what Swedenborg 
says of the order of the spiritual world, and especially of there 
being a " world of spirits " intermediate between our world 
and heaven or hell, who are in more immediate proximity 
to the mass of men, I am unable to rest in it as an absolute 
certainty that Mr. D.'s impressions on this score are correct. 
What we are taught respecting the influx of one spirit's mind 
into that of another, and of one's frequently personating an- 
other, leaves it still subject to doubt, whether the other party 
to this strange interview were really Swedenborg himself. It 



200 APPENDIX A. 

may possibly have been a "subject" of Swedenborg* — 
some one who was hi close conjunction with him— who 
was thoroughly imbued with his truths — who was intent up- 
on the propagation of his system hi the world — and yet he 
may have been merely an intermediate spirit, of the "world 
of spirits," through whom Swedenborg's influx may have 
come to Davis' mind. This is perhaps rendered more proba- 
ble by the fact that all the quotations from the E. U. which 
occur in the letter, are made from the English version. The 
inference would seem to be that they must have been trans- 
ferred, so to speak, from an English memory, for they would 
scarcely have that dress in Swedenborg's mind, and I know 
not that he develop es any law by which the process could 
have occurred on any other supposition, than that the dicta- 
tion should have come from some one who had read the 
work in the English translation. It may therefore have been 
a different being from that which Mr. X). supposed. 

From what Swedenborg has developed of the state of things 
in the other life, we learn that another spirit may have actu- 
tually assumed his form and appearance, and that too with- 
out a necessary evil intent, but simply from the plenary in- 
flux of his mind. I am therefore at a great remove from as- 
surance as to the identity of the spiritual personage who 
formed a party to this asserted conference. The whole matter, 
however, is, from the nature of the case, involved in so much 
obscurity that nothing positive can be affirmed respecting it. 
I am only assured of the fact, that most extraordinary dis- 
closures have been made from the spiritual world through 
this gifted young man, and that things more and more won- 
derful are constantly being exhibited by him, of which the 
world will by and by have an opportunity to judge. 

I observe the illuminated expression of your eye, which it 
is given to know, corresponds to understanding, because un- 
derstanding is interior sight, and also to sight and knowledge 
of things true and immaterial, 2701, 4410, 4526, 9051, 10,569. 



* Upon the nature and character of "subjects" in the other 
world, I shalt have occasion to remark on a subsequent page. 



APPENDIX A. 201 

This doubtless favors, at first blush, the idea that the spirit 
who appeared to Mr.D. was no other than Swedenborg him- 
self. But we still do not consider it decisive, as the same 
cause which produced this effect upon Swedenborg's eye 
may have produced it upon that of another being. The same 
ocular phenomenon occurred in the case of the Seeress of 
Prevorst, hereafter to be mentioned, and from her account is 
common to all spiritual vision. But the fact in regard to Swe- 
denborg, reminds us of the following item in his biography. 
" Mr. Robsham having asked of the wife of Swedenborg's 
gardener, if she had ever observed any change in the coun- 
tenance of her master, soon after he had conversed with 
spirits ; to this she replied : ( Entering one day, after dinner, 
into his chamber, I saw his eyes like a most bright flame ; I drew 
back, saying, In the name of God, Sir, what has happened 
extraordinary to you, for you have a very particular kind of 
appearance ? ' ' What kind of look have 1/ answered he» 
I then told him what had struck me, ' Well, well,' exclaimed 
he (which was his favorite expression), ' don't be frightened ; 
the Lord has so disposed my eyes, that by them spirits may 
see what is in our world.' In a short time this appearance 
passed away, as he said it would. ' I know,' said she, * when 
he has conversed with heavenly spirits, for there is a pleas- 
ure and calm satisfaction in his countenance, which charms 
those who see it ; but after he has conversed with evil spirits, 
he has a sorrowful look.'" — Docu. Concern. Swedenborg, p. 76. 
There is not the slightest ground for believing that Mr. D. 
had ever became acquainted with the fact of this personal pe- 
culiarity in regard to Swedenborg. — As to the remainder of 
the sentence, and the references, we perceive their source in 
what follows : — " That the eye corresponds to the understanding, 
because the understanding is internal sight, and the sight of things 
immaterial, n. 2071, 4410, 4526, 9051, 10,569."— E. U. 22, note* 

We have now submitted, with our comments, this remark- 
able production to the reader. It will appear remarkable 
just in proportion as the evidence is strong, that the work we 



202 APPENDIX A. 

have incessantly quoted throughout was never read by Mr. D 
and that the paper was not prepared to his hand by one who 
had. The latter supposition is entirely incredible, for his as- 
sociations have not been such as to bring him into contact 
with any one who is sufficiently familiar with these writings 
to prepare such an article, and one who could do it would not 
He could have no object that he would not feel to be con- 
demned by the spirit of every page of these hallowed revela- 
tions. Besides, as to Mr. D. , nearly every hour of his time for the 
last two years can be distinctly accounted for, as he is scarce 
ever for five minutes out of the presence of one or the other 
of his companions, and they know that he has had no op- 
portunity for the private getting up of such a document. 
And who will rationally believe that any object to be gained 
by a bare-faced fabrication could be sufficient to induce him 
to endeavor to palm such an egregious lie upon the world ? 
Still I cannot be ignorant that it will be regarded by multitudes 
as far more probable that a scheme of imposture has been 
concocted by somebody, and the present paper got up as a part 
of it, than that a miraculous communication has been made, 
at this age of the world, through this young man as a medi- 
um. This conclusion will doubtless be favored by all those 
who sturdily refuse admission to the claim made for Swe- 
denborg of having spoken, by divine suggestion, from the 
spiritual world. To those who are ready to recognize the 
soundness of this claim the difficulty on this score will have 
but little weight, for they have learnt the presumption of 
" limiting the Holy One of Israel," and of prescribing to him 
when and where and how he shall put forth his mighty 
power in bestowing new measures of truth upon his crea- 
tures. They will be at no loss to admit the possibility of just 
such a demonstration as that which we affirm in the present 
case, and they, we think, in view of all the circumstances, 
will be inclined to share with us in the conviction, that in re- 
gard to Mr. D. the evidence decidedly preponderates, that he 
has told the simple truth — that he never read the book. 

Here then stands the astounding fact, that a young man of 
the utmost simplicity and truthfulness of character — of fair 



APPENDIX A. 203 

natural parts, but of exceedingly limited intellectual culture 
— who had never read a page of Swedenb org's writings — is 
prompted, while in a preternatural state, to indite a long 
communication made up from beginning to end of a series of 
quotations from one of these w^orks, embodying a train of 
profound philosophical thought, such as he is utterly inca- 
pable of entertaining or expressing in his normal condition I 
Indeed I am myself satisfied that even if he had had the 
book before him, he would be utterly incapable of framing 
from it such an article as we have here presented to us. The 
character of his mind, and his entire intellectual habits, are 
of an order altogether foreign to the production of a docu- 
ment of this kind, no matter what might be the materials be- 
fore him. This will perhaps be doubted, but not by those 
who know him. 

Such then are the circumstances attending this remarkable 
case, and the whole affair is propounded to the world for so- 
lution. Such a solution too is demanded as, supposing su* 
pernatural agency involved, shall explain why the recorded 
sentiments of Emanuel Swedenb org shall thus be echoed 
from the spiritual world rather than those of any other man. 
This is the grand problem in the case, and it is felt to press 
just in proportion to the difficulty of accounting for the facts 
on the ground of fabrication or fraud. The difficulty on this 
score we think to be insuperable, and the conclusion not to 
be avoided, that the communication is the result of the action 
of a disembodied mind on the mind of the writer. To whom- 
soever that mind pertained, it was certainly one which was 
deeply imbued with Swedenborg's doctrines, and which was 
intent on having them imparted, through this medium, to 
the world. Yet why such a distinction conferred on these 
doctrines especially ? Why are the spirits holding these doc- 
trines permitted or prompted, rather than any others, to be 
brought into connection with young Davis' mind and to act, by 
their influx, upon it ? Some reason must be assigned for this, 
and again we ask what it is ? Has it not the air at least of a 
providential attestation of the truth of these doctrines ? Does 
it not seem to be a designed confirmation of the claim of a 



204 APPENDIX A. 

messenger from heaven ? One of the main features of this 
claim is the asserted fact of Swedenborg's having been com- 
missioned to reveal the conditions of the other life, and the 
truth of the fixed and indissoluble connection between the 
spiritual and the natural world. But all this is subservient 
to the still higher function of unfolding the true genius of the 
Christian Religion. If the disclosures are true, we do not see 
but the doctrines must be. Consequently whatever goes to 
confirm the verity of the one bears also upon that of the 
other. But if both are hi deed true, it does not seem unrea- 
sonable that some such providential testimony to this truth 
should be afforded as we read in the case before us. 

I am aware that the reply to this will be, that the very 
pohit I am laboring to establish, viz. the relation of the 
phenomena of Mesmerism to those that mark the case of 
Swedenborg, disproves the idea of anything miraculous or 
divine in his revelations — that if common clairvoyants are 
gifted with the opening of a spiritual sense which brings 
them into peculiar relation and intercourse with the spiritual 
w^orld, there is no need to consider Swedenborg's prerogative 
in any other light, except perhaps as his superior native and 
acquired endowments may have rendered him a vessel of 
larger reception than his fellow-seers ? How, it may be ask- 
ed, did he differ from them but in the degree of his influx and 
illumination ? In reply to this I can only say, that I should 
be sorry to think that I had toiled so much in vain in the 
preceding pages as not to have impressed upon the reader a 
conviction of the immeasurable interval, in point of absolute 
reliability, which separates the apocalypse of Swedenborg from 
the apocrypha of the Mesmeric seeings. I would ask of any 
one who has attentively read the foregoing extracts from 
his works, in connection with those cited from the Magnetic 
writings, whether he is not conscious of an immense dispari- 
ty in the two on the score of solidity, gravity, reality, and a 
certain indescribable air of truth ? Does not Swedenborg speak 
comparatively in a tone of self-conscious authority, which is 
clearly entitled to render his revelations a standard by which 
the truth of all others is to be tried and decided ? Does he 



APPENDIX A. 205 

not disclose the amazing fallacies and delusions to which 
those are exposed who come into this state unprotected by 
the panoply of a sound and upright moral condition ? Can 
we resist the impression that he would himself have been 
liable to become the victim of the thousand fold subtle phan- 
tasies that prevail hi that world, if he had not been specially 
called and qualified to be the subject of this hazardous expe- 
rience ? 

" Swedenborg's illumination differed only in degree from 
ordinary clairvoyance." But what is in this degree ? The in- 
spired prophets themselves could never have been admitted 
into the spiritual sphere, and enabled to describe its sublime 
spectacles, except upon the ground of an innate potentiality, 
in the very structure of their being, for such an intromission. 
The same capability belongs to all other men, and it has 
doubtless been more or less developed in thousands of in- 
stances both in earlier and in later days. The souls of pious 
men have often been visited, especially upon their death- 
beds, with the sights and sounds of heaven. But would 
any one rightly infer from this, that the utterances of the 
prophetic ecstasy were clothed with no more authority than 
the sayings emanating from the devout raptures of the saints, 
albeit, they may have proceeded from the same psychologi- 
cal grounds laid in the elements of their being ? Is not the 
degree of difference everything ? We have admitted that 
there is a common basis in the principles of our nature for 
the revelations of clairvoyants and the revelations of Sweden- 
borg, but, without retracting this admission, we hold that 
there is a heaven-wide difference between them growing out 
of the circumstances of their utterance. Still I see not but 
that the one may justly be made use of to illustrate the 
other, and that the process is perfectly legitimate by which 
I have endeavored to confirm the truth of Swedenborg's 
statements, not so much by the actual revelations of Mesmeric 
subjects, as by the phenomena of the Mesmeric state. 

The above remarks are made in view of the possibility 
that Mr. D.'s other revelations may contain many things that 
are intrinsically erroneous and at variance with Sweden- 
10 



206 APPENDIX A. 

borg's teachings. I do not know that they do, but it is still 
possible, and should the fact be so, I can yet see that a very 
important end maybe accomplished in the way of confirma- 
tion, by showing that Swedenborg has disclosed the truth in 
regard to the delusions that emanate from the spiritual 
world. It is something for an assurance to be given of his 
own truth, even in what he says of the untruth of evil 
spirits, and the force of the evidence is not lessened by 
the proofs of both coming through the same medium, when 
brought into a state like that of Mr. D. 

And here, with the hope of reflecting still farther light 
upon the psychological phenomena involved in the present 
case, I shall advert to one remarkable feature of Sweden- 
b org's disclosures — I mean that which relates to subject- spirits 
in the other world. A subject, in his phraseology, is one who 
serves as a medium of communication, for the most part 
between societies of spirits, whether good or evil, though 
capable of performing the same functions in relation to indi- 
vidual spirits. " The spirits who were seen near to me, 
were for the most part subjects of entire societies ; for socie- 
ties send from themselves spirits to others, and through them 
perceive the things thought and the affections, and thus 
communicate." "In the other life one society cannot have 
communication with another, or with an individual, except 
by the spirits who are sent forth by them ; these emissary- 
spirits are called subjects, for by them as by subjects they 
discourse. To send forth subjects to other societies, and 
thereby to procure to themselves communication, is among 
the familiar things in the other life ; and it is very well known 
to me by this, that they have been sent to me a thousand 
times." 

In the following extract a much fuller account is given of 
the peculiar genius of these emissary-spirits and of the part 
they perform in the matter of mental communication. " The 
subject is he, in whom are concentrated the thoughts and 
discourses of several, and thus several are presented as one : 
and because a subject thinks and speaks nothing at all from 
himself, but from others, and the thoughts and discourses of 



APPENDIX A. 207 

others are therein presented to the life, therefore they who 
flow in suppose, that the subject is as nothing, and scarcely 
animated, being merely receptive of their thought and dis- 
course ; but the subject on the other hand supposes, that he 
does not think and speak from others, but from himself 
alone ; thus fallacies delude both. It has been frequently 
given me to say to a subject, that he thinks and speaks 
nothing from himself, but from others ; and also that those 
others suppose that a subject is not able to think and speak 
anything from himself, thus that he appears to them as a 
person in whom there is nothing of life from himself; on 
hearing this, he who was the subject was filled with indigna- 
tion ; but that he might be convinced of the truth, it was 
given to speak with the spirits who flowed in, and they then 
confessed, that a subject does not think and speak anything 
from himself, arid thus that he appears to them to be some- 
thing scarcely animate. It happened also on a time, that he, 
who said that a subject was nothing, became himself a sub- 
ject, and then the rest said of him that he was nothing, at 
which he was greatly enraged ; but yet he was instructed by 
this how the case is. 

"It is worthy of being mentioned, that it has frequently 
been shown by experiment, that no one, either in heaven or 
in hell, thinks, speaks, wills, and acts, from himself, but from 
others, and thus finally all and each from the common influx 
of life, which is from the Lord. When I have heard them 
say, that a subject did not think and speak anything from 
himself, and that still the subject thought that it was solely 
from himself, it has then been frequently given them to speak 
with those, who flowed in into the subject ; and when they 
persisted in the assertion that they thought and spoke for 
themselves, but not the subject, it was also given to tell them 
that this was a fallacy, and that they, as well as the subject, 
thought and spake from others ; to confirm this point, it was 
also given to speak with those who flowed in into these 
latter ; and when they also confessed a like persuasion, it 
was also given to speak with those who flowed in into these, 
and so on in a continued series ; hence it w T as made manifest, 



208 APPENDIX A. 

that every one thought and spake from others. This ex ?ri= 
ence excited in the spirits the utmost indignation, for every 
one of them wills to think and speak from himself; but be- 
cause they were thence instructed how the case is, it was 
said to them, that the all of thought and also of will flows 
in, because there is but one only life, from which those facul- 
ties of life are, and that that life flows in from the Lord 
through a wonderful form, which is the heavenly form, not 
only generally into all, but also particular^ into each; and that 
it is varied everywhere according to the form of each subject, 
according as this agrees or disagrees with the heavenly form. 
From these things it may also appear evident how the case 
is with man, of whom more will be said in what follows, 
when treating of influx. 

" The more there are who concentre their view into one 
subject, the stronger is the subject's power of thinking and of 
speaking ; the power is increased according to the plurality 
of concordant views ; this was also shown me by the with- 
drawing of some who flowed in, in that the subject's power 
of thinking and of speaking was then diminished. 

1 ' There were subjects with me near the head, who dis- 
coursed as if they were in sleep, but still they discoursed 
well, as they who are not in a state of sleep. It was observed 
that evil spirits flowed in into those subjects with malignant 
deceits, but that the influx in them was instantly dissipated ; 
and whereas they knew that those same had before been 
their subjects, therefore they complained that they were no 
longer so: the reason was, because good spirits could now 
act into them, when they were in sleep, and thus that by their 
influx the malignant influences of the evil spirits were dis- 
persed. 5 '— A. C. 5985, 5988. 

This latter paragraph is quite remarkable from the intima- 
tion conveyed of a state among spirits analogous to the mag- 
netic sleep among men, a state, too, which gives decided ad- 
vantage to the influx of good spirits, as would appear to be 
the case also in regard to human sleep-wakers. The in- 
stances quoted from Mr. Townshend in the previous chapter 
on Truthfulness are strikingly in point. 

How far a parallelism is to be detected between the case of 



APPENDIX A. 209 

Mr. D. and that of the spirits here described, I am not prepar- 
ed to say, but that they are somewhat analogous appears evi- 
dent, and the following extract seems to disclose a coincidence 
still more marked : — " There was a certain one above my 
head, that spake with me. From the sound I perceived that 
he who spake with me was in a state of sleep, and yet as if 
not in sleep. He spake respecting this and that altogether 
like those who are broad awake, and with such prudence 
that one awake could not have discovered more, so that there 
was nothing indicating sleep except the sound alone. I per- 
ceived that good interior angels spake through him, and he in 
that state perceived and produced (what they suggested). I 
asked him concerning the state, telling him what kind of state 
he appeared to be in, and that he spake nothing else but what 
was good and true, and that he perceived whether there was 
anything different (from the good and true), which he would 
not admit or utter ; thus that he was in the state of one who 
was awake ; but because in a state of sleep he said that that 
was a state of peace. His delight thence arising I perceived 
from the fact of being myself in a similar state of love, for I 
am free from all solicitude and care respecting the future. 
Thus they are enabled to render (important) uses." — S. D. 
3878. 

I do not know that the supposition is incredible that this 
is in effect Mr. D.'s state, and that from a very peculiar mental 
organization — a somnambulic idiosyncrasy — he is adapted to 
become a subject-medium or a fit recipient for the influx of an- 
gelic ideas, and in this character may, as Swedenborg says, 
be enabled to " render important uses " by communications 
of knowledge from a higher sphere, while, at the same time, 
to all appearance, as in the case of subjects generally, he 
merely brings forth the product of his own mind. In this 
state I do not perceive that there is any definable limitation 
to his power of imparting light on any theme of human in- 
quiry. 'He apparently discourses on all subjects with equal 
facility and correctness.* The range of his intuitions appears 
■n — — ~ 

* The manner in which Mr. D.'s remarkable gift is, so to speak, 



210 APPENDIX A, 

to be well nigh boundless. Yet, with the solution before us, 
we recognize the intelligence not as his, but as that of the 
spirits who speak through him. The extent of their know- 
ledge of the truths of the universe we, of course, cannot 
measure. Yet in receiving their utterances through such a 
medium, we can never be released from the duty of subject- 
ing them to the ordeal of reason and revelation, whose lights 
are never superseded by miraculous oracles. We may, in- 
deed, find occasion, from such communications, to reconsider 
the prior verdicts of our reason, and the established interpre- 
tations put upon the Word, but we can never properly forego 
our legitimate guides and yield to a demand for implicit faith 
even in angelic revelations. 

From the point of view in which we have exhibited the 
particulars of this remarkable case, it cannot fail to be seen 
that a newphasis is given to the evidence before adduced of 
the relations of Mesmerism to the spiritualism of Sweden- 
borg. I now propose to adduce a more direct testimony to 
the same effect. This is a remarkable paragraph in one of 
Swedenborg's letters to a correspondent, which, we think, 
receives its true interpretation from its bearings on the sub- 
ject before us. 



managed and overruled, is no less extraordinary than the gift itself. 
It is uniformly held in entire subordination, to some important use. 
He submits to no experiments prompted by mere curiosity. He 
makes no revelations, offers no advice, expresses no opinion, which 
would in any way give one person an undue advantage over an- 
other. Though evidently possessing in his abnormal state a super- 
natural knowledge, no worldly inducement has the least effect to- 
wards persuading him to exercise it for any purpose which would 
not conduce to the good of the whole. The most urgent solicitations 
have been made to him to aid individuals in the accomplishment 
of schemes of private interest, but all in vain. He invariably turns 
a deaf ear to all such propositions. He refuses because, he says, 
it would not be right, and because it would endanger the continu- 
ance of his clairvoyant power for higher and holier purposes. 

As to the Lectures in which he is engaged, lie maintains that in 
their grand scope they aim directly at the regeneration of society ; 
that a great moral crisis is impending in this "world's history; and 
that he is selected as a humble instrument to aid, in a particular 
sphere, in its accomplishment. 



APPENDIX A. 211 

• ' To your interrogation, Whether there is occasion for any 
s &n that I am sent by the Lord to do what I do? I answer, that at 
this day no signs or miracles will be given, because they 
compel only an external belief, but do not convince the in- 
ternal. What did the miracles avail in Egypt, or among the 
Jewish nation, who nevertheless crucified the Lord ? So, if the 
Lord was to appear now in the sky, attended with angels and 
trumpets, it would have no other effect than it had then. See 
Luke xvi. 29, 30, 31. The sign given at this day, will be an 
illustration, and thence a knowledge and reception of the truths 
of the New Church : some speaking illustration of certain persons 
may likewise take place ; this works more effectually than 
miracles." — Letter to Oetinger, HobarVs Life of Swedenborg, p. 43. 

Now it is a fair question, what is meant by the " speaking 
illustration " here mentioned. It seems that the truth of his 
mission might eventually be confirmed by something that 
should take place in regard to other persons. We should natu- 
rally suppose, a priori, that all the evidence appropriate to 
the occasion would be confined to himself, as in the case of 
the first promulgators of the Gospel. But it seems that in 
this instance a new order of testimony, from another source, 
was perhaps to be made auxiliary to the establishment of the 
claims of a professed messenger from God. Whether Swe- 
denborg's foresight of the exact nature of this testimony was 
clear and accurate, it is now probably impossible to deter- 
mine, but it may be questioned whether anything can be 
conceived that answers more suitably to its predicted charac- 
ter than the phenomena we have now been considering. It 
is certainly something which " speaks f and that it truly in- 
volves an " illustration," I trust has been shown by the whole 
tenor of the foregoing argument. At any rate, if it be not this, 
it may be said to be a problem which well nigh defies con- 
jecture. We are willing, however, to leave it to the reader 
to put his own construction on the remark, and imagine what 
he pleases as to the precise anticipation that prompted it. It 
will not be easy, I think, to resist the impression that Mes- 
merism, viewed in its most striking effects, is a " speaking il- 
lustration," and one that speaks somewhat loudly, too, of the 
truth of Swedenborg's spiritual developments, and conse- 



212 APPENDIX A. 

quently of the truth of his mission; for this can only be made 
out by the intrinsic character of the information he has im- 
parted to the world. A true messenger can only be proved 
such by his delivering a true message. 

In conclusion, from a full view of the case given above, 
especially when considered in connection with all the facts 
and deductions presented in the body of the preceding work, 
we see no sufficient grounds for refusing assent to it as a 
veritable narrative. It cannot well be rejected on the simple 
score of strangeness, after the astounding things which have 
already come before the reader. We do not perceive that it 
is intrinsically incredible that a man's spirit, while on earth, 
should come into communion with spirits translated to a 
higher sphere. It is clear, we think, from the evidence af- 
forded, that the Mesmeric state, in its more sublimated mani- 
festations, does enable one human spirit, while sojourning in 
the body, to come into actual converse with another human 
spirit similarly conditioned. If so, why may not a like inter- 
course occur between an embodied and a disembodied 
spirit ? The only question, in the present instance, which 
particularly calls for solution, is that which concerns the rea- 
sons why the spirit of Mr. D. should be brought into contact 
with that of Swedenb org— provided it was his— and made the 
medium of his influx, rather than with that of any other man 
who has formerly lived, and promulgated what he deemed 
important truths to the world ? The reply to this, we think, 
can scarcely fail to suggest itself from the whole tenor of the 
previous discussion. We have accumulated a mass of testi- 
mony in proof of our position, that Swedenborg has laid open 
the interior laws and principles which govern these marvel- 
lous developments of the spiritual element in men. If he 
has done this, it was because he was enabled to do it in virtue 
of a special designation to that end by the Divine Providence 
itself. This we infer from the intrinsic character of his reve- 
lations, which so immeasurably transcends that of all ordi- 
nary clairvoyants, while at the same time it ascertains the 
truth of the psychological basis on which theirs rest. But if 
this is admitted— if a divine ordination be recognised in his 



APPENDIX A. 213 

disclosures — then we are brought at once to the conclusion, 
that they are in themselves of an importance which renders 
them worthy of precisely such an attestation as we read in 
the related and parallel phenomena of the case before us. 
There is nothing more wonderful in the fact of Mr. D.'s con- 
versing with Swedenborg than of Swedenborg's conversing 
with the departed spirits of other men. But the other and 
lower phenomena of Mr. D.'s transic state, go directly to 
prove, as we have shown, the truth of Swedenborg's inter- 
course with the spiritual world. This again, when estab- 
lished, reflects back a powerful evidence of the truth of Mr. 
D.'s intercourse with himself or some adequate representa- 
tive. Such is the posture of the affair as it is presented to the 
judgment of the world. Its calm and enlightened verdict is 
very anxiously awaited. 

In view of the foregoing narrative, presented as it has 
been, in its various bearings, the reader, I trust, will allow 
the suggestion that the case is one which imperiously de- 
mands on his part a definitive judgment. It is not of a nature to be 
summarily dismissed as merely something that astounds and 
confounds all belief, and about which, as one knows not 
what to think, it were therefore better not to think at all. This 
surely is an unfair and unphilosophical mode of dealing with 
evidence such as that which we have exhibited in relation to 
the alleged facts. It is by no means a fit entertainment of a 
narrative like the present to reply, that it sets at defiance all 
known laws of mind — all settled principles of belief — and 
therefore is unworthy of serious consideration. Is nothing, to 
be admitted as worthy of attention and examination which 
disturbs, in any degreee, our pre-established sentiments on 
any point of science or religion ? When an asserted fact of 
the most momentous character is set before us, sustained by 
irrefragable proof, is it the part of cool-judging reason to turn 
away with blank indifference from the subject, or to say with 
Baron de Grimm in regard to the narrative of Swedenborg's 
supernatural insight, " The fact is confirmed by authorities 
so respectable, that it is impossible to deny it; but the question 
is, how to believe it ? " This may perhaps be a mode of rea- 

10* 



214 APPENDIX A. 

soning becoming a French philosopher of the last century, but 
I doubt if it will find a response in any fair mind at the present 
day. Suppose the Baron or any of his associates were to be 
suddenly restored to life and informed by Arago, Guizot, and 
others, that intelligence was now instantaneously transmit- 
ted from one end of France to another, what should we think 
if he were to reply, " The fact is confirmed by authorities so 
respectable that it is impossible to deny it ; but the question 
is, how to believe it." Should we not say at once, " If you do 
not believe the fact upon the testimony adduced, are you not 
bound to make known the reasons on which you refuse to be- 
lieve it ? We ask simply for the reasons that justify you in with- 
holding your faith." So in the present case. We do not un- 
derstand the philosophy of that state of mind which can suf- 
fer one to relapse from a perusal of the preceding pages into 
a dead indifference — a sort of moral inertia — in regard to the 
whole matter. The facts asserted are either true or false. 
The evidence adduced is either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. 
If the latter, wherein ? In what point is the soundness of 
my conclusions to be impeached? That the above commu- 
nication was actually written and sent to me by young Davis, 
is beyond question. That it is made up of quotations from 
Swedenborg's " Earths in the Universe " is equally incapable 
of a doubt. The only question is, whether it was copied by 
his own or some other hand, or whether, as he affirms, it was 
supernaturally dictated to his mind. The latter hypoth- 
esis no one can be expected to adopt unless the force of the 
evidence of the young man's veracity be such as to counter- 
vail the a priori incredibility of the fact. Now without as- 
serting this to be the case, I still maintain that there is so much 
evidence to that effect as justly to forbid the apathy which I 
deprecate. The testimony is clear and unequivocal as to 
the general truthfulness and integrity of the young man's 
character. It is also undeniable that he is constantly giving 
forth utterances in the Mesmeric state which are as intrinsic- 
ally marvellous as that which we have considered, and 
which therefore reflect the character of credibility upon 
this. I can most solemnly affirm that I have heard him 



APPENDIX A. 215 

correctly quote the Hebrew language in his Lectures, and dis- 
play a knowledge of Geology which would have been aston- 
ishing in a person of his age, even if he had devoted years to 
the study. Yet to neither of these departments has he ever 
devoted a day's application in his life. I can moreover testi- 
fy that in these Lectures he has discussed, with the most sig- 
nal ability, the profound est questions of Historical and Bibli- 
cal Archaeology, of Mythology, of the Origin and Affinities of 
Language, of the Progress of Civilization among the different 
nations of the globe, besides an immense variety of related 
topics, on all which, though the style is somewhat faulty, the 
results announced would do honor to any scholar of the age, 
even if in reaching them he had had the advantage of access 
to all the libraries in Christendom. Indeed, if he has acquir- 
ed all the information he gives forth in these Lectures, not in 
the two years since he left the shoemaker's bench, but in his 
whole life, with the most assiduous study, no prodigy of in- 
tellect of which the world has ever heard would be for a mo- 
ment to be compared with him. Yet not a single volume on 
any of these subjects, if a page of a volume, has he ever 
read, nor, however intimate his friends may be with him, 
will one of them testify that during the last two years he has 
ever seen a book of science or history or literature in his 
hand. His daily life and habits are open to inspection, and 
if any one is prepared to gainsay in any point the statement 
now made, I will pledge myself to make a recantation as 
public as I now make the statement. 

I would ask then if this array of facts do not prefer an im- 
perative claim to consideration ? If the facts are such as I 
affirm, it is indeed impossible to view them apart from the 
revelations of Swedenborg. They conduct us at once to that 
sphere of phenemena which he, and he alone, has developed. 
But is this a sufficient ground for refusing them a hearing ? Is 
the name of Swedenborg but another term for delusion, and 
vagary, and dream ? Is it a matter of course that nothing 
can be true which connects itself with his disclosures ? Shall 
the imputation of fiction be allowed to neutralize the evidence 
of fact ? It is the facts in the case which I plead, and I can- 



216 APPENDIX A. 

not but protest, with uplifted hand, against the injustice of 
permitting an unwelcome inference to weigh down and 
stifle the testimony sustaining Jhe principle from which it 
flows. It is indeed an inevitable inference, that if the facts 
affirmed in the case of Davis are such as I have claimed, the 
revelations of Swedenborg bear the stamp of heaven, and the 
reproach must be rolled away from those who have given 
them their credence. On this head they do undoubtedly feel 
solicitude, and why should they not ? It cannot be other than 
a grief to sensible minds to be aware, that they are look- 
ed upon by the majority of their fellow-men as the dupes of 
a gross delusion in yielding their assent to the dogmas and 
disclosures of one who can only be regarded as a devout lu- 
natic. As they are inwardly assured, beyond the possibility 
of a doubt, that their faith rests upon the soundest foundation, 
they naturally feel desirous that others should give them the 
credit, which they are conscious of deserving, of having 
yielded to evidence of the most legitimate and unimpeacha- 
ble character. • In a case therefore like the present, where the 
admission of the alleged facts is a clear certificate to the jus- 
tice of their views, they may well be expected to be urgent 
in their appeal to the world on the ground of these facts. 
They can by no means consent that a slighting go-by shall be 
given to such a testimony to the truth of their faith as they 
read in these lucid developments. 

Still from their knowledge of the obliquities of the human 
mind, they cannot suppress the fear, that the evidence in this 
matter will not be fairly dealt with — that those who cannot 
deny will yet demur — that they will content themselves with 
some flimsy apology for not forming an opinion — that they 
will settle down in the belief that there is some solution, 
could they but discover it, which shall preclude the necessity 
of resorting to the supernatural. This very propensity to 
stave off the unwelcome conviction that Swedenborg is, after 
all, true, and that God designs to certify his truth to the world 
because it comes from Himself, is one among the items that 
go to confine that truth, because he has so luminously un- 
folded its source and the subtle modes of its operation. No 



APPENDIX A. 217 

one has ever so fully developed, as he has done, the influ- 
ence of affection, passion, self-interest, in moulding belief or 
in urging unbelief. He has completely anatomized the pro- 
cess by which his own claims are nullified. He has illus- 
trated it too in his graphic delineations of the facts of the 
other life. We find in one of his relations the narrative of a 
conversation with certain spirits, who have left a large class 
of representatives on earth. " Continuing to converse with 
them respecting the operation of their sphere, some of them 
said they would believe if they should see me resuscitate a 
dead person who was lying on a bier. But it was given to 
reply, that even if they should see a dead person revived, 
they would not believe unless they should see me resuscitate 
a number, and even then they would ascribe it to natural 
causes, and so would believe less than before ; for so it hap- 
pens with anything which becomes familiar, that it makes 
no more impression than the sight of green meadows, which 
excite as little wonder, when the causes are not considered, 
as did the manna with the Jews, though they saw it every 
day. Therefore faith cannot be rooted in a man's mind by 
means of miracles, nor even persuasion ; if they are persuaded, 
it will be without miracles. They afterwards said, when left 
to their own thoughts, that if they should see a priest raise 
(and reanimate) a dead body that was being borne to the 
burial, they should ascribe it to fraud ; and when they were 
convinced that it was no fraud, they would say that the soul 
of the dead man had some secret communication with the 
priest, by means of which the resuscitation took place ; and 
if they saw this happen in repeated instances, they would 
be confirmed in the idea that there was some secret in the 
case which they did not comprehend, as many things occur 
in the course of nature which are not well understood ; but 
they would never believe the priest's assertion that the effect 
was wrought by a celestial power, and so would ascribe it 
to nature. The quality of their faith, even though miracles 
should be wrought, may hence appear. It is such that they 
neither believe in spirit, nor heaven, nor hell." — S. D. 3521. 



218 APPENDIX B. 

Truth, however, as well as Wisdom, is justified of her chil- 
dren. There are those whom inveterate prepossession has 
not steeled against the power of constraining evidence, how 
much soever it may go counter to prior belief. From all 
such we anticipate a verdict according to truth, and such a 
verdict cannot fail to confirm the grand conclusion which we 
have labored throughout this volume to establish, to wit, that 
the spiritual world has been laid open to mortal view through 
the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg. It is upon 
those therefore who deny, and not upon those who admit, 
this fact that the imputation of madness redounds. 



APPENDIX B. 



THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 



The title of this section of our Appendix is the title of a 
work, translated from the German, containing the narrative 
of a prolonged magnetic experience in the case of a Madam 
HaurTe, whose native place was Prevorst in Wirtemberg. It 
is a volume replete with interest to those who can appreci- 
ate the truth, impliedly conveyed on its title-page, of " the 
inter- diffusion of a w r orld of spirits in the one we inhabit.'* 
My object in adducing it hi this connection is to add another 
to the list of confirmations drawn from the magnetic pheno- 
mena of the truth of Swedenborg's disclosures. The paral- 
lelisms are very striking, and they derive weight from the 
fact, that they come from an independent source. Though 
Swedenborg is occasionally alluded to in the work, yet it is 
in such terms as to preclude the supposition that either the 
subject herself, or the author, regarded him as an authoritative 
expounder of the mysteries of the inner world of spirits 
which are so fully dwelt upon in the pages of the work." 



* Indeed, as to Mrs. H., Kerner remarks, p. 121, that of Sweden- 
borg she knew nothing whatever. 



APPENDIX B. 219 

The case of this lady is peculiar. Her condition was pre- 
eminently a morbid one, and in the outset was evidently not 
understood by her attendants, in consequence of which a 
course of treatment was entered upon in the highest degree 
ill-judged and injurious. Its effects were somewhat retrieved 
by the system of measures afterwards adopted by Kerner, 
who has given her case to the world ; but they were never 
fully countervailed by any subsequent process. The writer 
observes respecting her at the time she came under his 
care : — " Many years before Mrs. H. was brought to me, 
the earth, with its atmosphere, and everything connected 
with it — mankind not excepted — had ceased to be anything 
for her. She had long needed more than mortal aid could 
yield her : she needed other skies, other nourishment, other 
airs, than this planet could afford her. She was more than 
half a spirit, and belonged to a world of spirits ; she belong- 
ed to a world after death, and was herself more than half 
dead That in the early years of her illness Mrs. H. might, 
by judicious treatment, have been restored to a condition 
more fit for this world, is exceedingly probable ; but, at a 
later period, this was impossible. However, by much care, 
we did so far improve her condition, that, in spite of many 
efforts to poison her peace, she looked upon the years she 
spent at Weinsberg as the least painful of her magnetic life. 
As we have said, her fragile body enveloped her spirit, but 
as a gauzy veil. She was small ; her features were oriental ; 
her eyes piercing and prophetic ; and their expression was 
heightened by her long, dark eye -lashes. She was a delicate 
flower, and lived upon sunbeams." — Seeress of Prevorst, p. 59. 

Her very life, it would seem, had become dependent on the 
vital energies and nervous emanations of those around her, 
and she was for the greater part of the time in a state so high- 
ly sublimated — so aloof from the grossness of the material 
world — as to be more properly termed a spirit than a being of 
mortal mould. " Should we compare her," says Kerner, " to 
a human being, we should rather say that she was in the 
state of one who, hovering between life and death, belonged 



220 APPENDIX B. 

rather to the world he was about to visit, than the ones he 
was going to leave." 

She was, as Kerner expressed it, " a being in the gripe of 
death, but chained to the body by magnetic power. Soul 
and spirit seemed to me often divided, and while the first 
was entangled with the body, the latter spread its wings and 
fluttered into other regions." She lived an inner life ; she was 
an inmate of the spirit- world ; and her revelations of that world 
were voluminous. Hence it would be strange if her reports 
did not frequently coincide with those of Swedenborg, al- 
though, as her moral state was incomparably below his, it 
would be natural that innumerable phantasies should mingle 
with the realities which she disclosed. Such was undoubt- 
edly the fact ; and in what follows, I propose to give merely 
such features of her developments as find a parallel in those 
of Swedenborg, in which alone we recognize the standard of 
truth whereby to try all revelations from the spiritual world. 

DISTINCTION OF SOUL, SPIRIT, AND BODY. 

Among the striking things of her disclosures is a marked, 
threefold distinction of the elements of our being into spirit, 
soul, and body. Although she nowhere discloses, in pure 
philosophical fashion, the precise nature of the difference, 
psychologically considered, between the soul and the spirit, 
yet she plainly ascribes thought to both, though she regards 
the soul as the mere gross and exterior of the two. The 
distinction is undoubtedly a sound one, as it is not only 
clearly recognized by the apostle, 1 Thes. v. 23., Heb. iv. 12., 
but was also inculcated by most of the ancient philosophers, 
especially the Platonic, Pythagorean, and Stoic* 

* " To comprehend the distinction between soul and spirit, which 
the Sacred Writers have insinuated, the soul must be considered 
as connected both with the body and the spirit. By its connection 
with the body, the soul receives impressions from the senses ; and 
by its connection with the spirit, it conveys these impressions, by 
means of the imagination and memory, to the spirit, as materi- 
als for its operations. The powers last mentioned, through their 
connection with the body, are liable indeed to be so disturbed by 



APPENDIX B. 221 

With this accords entirely the doctrine of the German 
Supernaturalists. " The spirit," says Von Meyer's lucid 
visionist, speaking in the Magnetic crisis, " is not (in this 
life) subject to suffering as the soul is." She adds, " The 
soul seeks after, and is attracted by, the natural in all 
things ; the spirit is absorbed in its own contemplations ; 
ever tending towards the Infinite, it has properly no sym- 
pathy with aught in the human world." And according 
as soul or spirit characterises an individual — in other words, 
according as the psychical (i. e., the natural) or the pneumatical 
(i. e., the religio-spiritual) man predominates in him, will he 
be disposed to reject or reverence the law of life laid down in 
the oracles of Holy Writ. 

" Both soul and spirit," says the writer of a notice of the 
Seeress in the Dub. Univ. Mag. (Jan., 1842), " were in perfect 
harmony with each other before the Fall of man ; but since the 
occurrence of that tremendous calamity they have ever stood 
in a relation of mutual hostility ; the soul, through the blindness 
entailed on her by Original Sin, foolishly fancying that her in- 
terests are bound up altogether with the Natural and the Present, 
while the spirit, though possessing an unclouded perception 
of the true state of the case, is yet, from the want of some 
common sympathetic channel of communication with its com- 
panion, unable to do more than loathe and lament her aberra- 
tions in secret, and note them down as they occur, in the hope 
that they may thus, however obscurely, be (as indeed they 
sometimes are) brought under her eye in their genuine colors. 
Occasionally, however, it does happen that the soulish prin- 
ciple quite absorbs, and, so to write, psyckises the spiritual ; 
in the which event the man is in danger of becoming a verita- 
ble devil. Nay, more : there is actually a perpetual tendency 
in nature towards this psychising and ultimate diabolising of 
the whole human being." 
The theology involved in this we have no doubt is correct, 

injuries befalling the body as to convey false perceptions to the 
spirit. But the powers of the spirit are not affected by bodily in- 
juries ; and it judges of the impressions conveyed to it as accu- 
rately as if they were true representations." — Macknigkt. 



222 APPENDIX B. 

and theology comes home to the mind with more power, 
just in proportion as it is seen to rest on a sound psychology. 
How far it accords with Swedenborg we shall see shortly. 

In speaking farther on the subject of this distinction, Mrs. 
H. remarked, "that the sleep-waking state is the life and 
act of the inner man, and contains in itself a proof of a 
future existence, and of reunion after death. It is the in- 
ternal activity of man which is unawakened in persons in 
their normal condition, and which is wholly asleep in those 
whose life is centered altogether in the brain, who, being un- 
conscious of their sympathetic life, never listen to its voice ; 
though, if man considered rightly, he would find this his true 
guide. The sleep -waking produced by magnetic passes is a 
sure remedy ■ for, in clairvoyance, the inner-man steps for- 
ward and inspects the outer, which is not the case either in 
sleep or dreaming. Clairvoyance is a state of the most per- 
fect vigilance, because then the inner spiritual man is disen- 
tangled and set free from the body. I would rather, there- 
fore, denominate sleep -waking the coming forward of the 
inner -man, or the spiritual growth of man. At these moments 
the spirit is quite free and able to separate itself from the soul 
and body, and go where it will, like a flash of lightning. The 
sleep-waker is then incapable of any ungodly act ; though 
his soul be impure, he can neither lie nor deceive. I should 
call this the third stage of clear-seeing. In the second stage, 
which is inferior, the soul and spirit come forth together — 
not the spirit alone, as in the former. There is a still inferior 
' state, in which the soul unites itself with the spirit ; and, as 
no soul is quite pure, the seeing is here imperfect. The low- 
est stage of all may be considered as an excited condition of 
the nervous system, and is a state which appears more or 
less in ordinary life. It resembles that prophetic power that 
some men, doubtless, are endowed with ; but, in the case of 
a sleep-waker, the faculty is stronger and more regular. In 
the normal condition, the soul dwells chiefly in the brain, and 
the spirit in the epigastric region. In the magnetic state, the 
soul approaches, more or less, the seat of the spirit. In those 
who only live their external life, the soul has the supremacy ; 



APPENDIX B. 223 

and the highest state of spiritual perfection is, when the spirit 
can free itself wholly from the soul."— Seeress, p. 109-110. 

It will be observed that in what she says respecting the 
spirit's inability to lie or deceive when thus temporarily set 
free from the clogs of the body, she still admits that the state 
of the soul may be, at the same time, prevailingly impure. It 
is, therefore, nothing more than a compelled truthfulness, 
and therefore agrees with what Swedenborg says of disem- 
bodied spirits. 

By the spirit the Seeress understands the most interior es- 
sence of our being ; and this, she says, is intrinsically capa- 
ble of some kind of separation both from the soul and the 
body, and one which actually occurs to a greater or less de- 
gree in the magnetic trance. Her ideas on this subject will 
appear more clearly in what follows. 

THE NERVE-SPIRIT. 

But the psychology of the Seeress involves another ele- 
ment which she calls the nerve-spirit, of the nature and func- 
tions of which she thus speaks : —" With respect to the nerve - 
spirit, or nervous principle of vitality, she said, that through 
it the soul was united to the body, and the body with the 
world. The facility with which the spirit freed itself in her 
case, was the cause of her abnormal condition. The nerve- 
spirit is immortal, and accompanies the soul after death, un- 
less where the soul is perfectly pure, and enters at once 
amongst the blessed. By its means the soul constructs an 
airy form around the spirit. It is capable of increase or growth, 
after death ; and by its means the spirits, who are yet in the 
mid-region, are brought into connection with a material in 
the atmosphere, which enables them to make themselves felt 
and heard by man, and also to suspend the property of grav- 
ity, and more heavy articles." — Seeress, p. 119-120. 

" Once she said, ' I feel the soul in the nerves, which I now 
see quite clearly. But I must know, with certainty, whether 
the soul only hovers over the nerves, and what happens to 
the nerves after death.' After looking more deeply into her- 



224 APPENDIX B. 

self, she said, ' The soul continues to live with the spirit, and 
creates around it an ethereal form.' " — Seeress, p. 108. 

The subject is still more fully developed in a subsequent 
passage : — " According to her, the nerve-spirit is the remnan 
of the body, and, after death, surrounds the soul with an 
aerial form. Being the highest organic power, it cannot by 
any other, physical or chemical, be destroyed ; and, when the 
body is cast off, it follows the soul ; and as, during life, it 
forms the only bond that unites the soul with the body and 
the world, so is it also the means whereby the soul, whilst in 
the mid-region, can make itself manifest to man; of which 
power the atmosphere is the instrument. In our ordinary 
condition, our senses are incapable of discerning these phe- 
nomena, just as we are incapable of perceiving the principle 
which produces seeing and hearing ; because the subject 
cannot, at the same time, be the object. 

" But in the abnormal magnetic state, such conditions are 
possible. The nerve-spirit — which, in our waking life, acts 
through the senses on the objective world — in the magnetic 
life is more concentrated and self-reflecting, whereby the 
sensorium attains an unwonted energy. It creates internal 
senses for itself out of the nervous plexuses, whilst the ex- 
ternal senses are more and more shut up. And thus, the 
sensitive life of the soul is augmented and strengthened, by 
the reinforcements of the knowing and willing powers, which 
unite with it." — Seer ess, p. 153. 

Although the language is diverse, yet the leading idea falls 
into evident coincidence with what Swedenborg teaches in 
the following extract. 

" The natural mind of man consists of spiritual substances, 
and at the same time of natural substances ; from its spiritual 
substances becomes thought, but not from the natural sub- 
stances ; these substances recede when a man dies, but not 
the spiritual substances: wherefore that same mind after 
death, when a man becomes a spirit or an angel, remains in 
a form similar to that in which it was in the world. The 
natural substances of that mind, which, as was said, recede 
by death, make the cutaneous envelope of the spiritual body, 
in which spirits and angels are. By such envelope, which is 
taken from the natural world, their spiritual bodies subsist; 
for the natural is the containing ultimate. "— -Z>. L. fy W. 257. 



APPENDIX B. 225 



THE SUN- CIRCLE AND THE LIFE- CIRCLE. 

Mad. H. represented herself as sometimes entering, spiritually, 
within the limits of a peculiar kind of interior circle or sphere, 
which she calls the " Sun-circle," made up of several succes- 
sive concentric circles, into some of which, though usually 
the outermost, magnetic subjects frequently pass, and within 
which the spirit experiences a kind of liberation from the 
fetters both of the soul and body, and comes into a percep- 
tion or cognizance of the realities of the spirit- world, so far 
as they can be apprehended by the mere intelligential princi- 
ple of the mind. This principle can bring within its scope 
the inner, actuating and spiritual essences which pervade the 
frame-work of the exterior creation, though it does not per- 
ceive, by the normal process of vision, their material embodi- 
ments. This is all that is meant by the sun, moon and planets 
being comprehended within the periphery of the sun-circle. 
These objects are not seen except as to what may be termed 
their interior soul or essence, and this is rather known than 
seen. So also the forms which exist in the spiritual world, 
and which are the living representatives that mirror the inner 
affections, become visible to the eliminated spirit. 

In close relation to the sun-sphere and underlying it, as it 
were, is another sphere which she calls the "Life-sphere" or 
"Life-circle." This is at once more interior and fundamental 
than the other. " In clear-seeing (clairvoyance)," says she, 
" the spirit quits the life-circle and enters the centre of the 
sun-circle ; and then all things become visible, freed from the 
veil or screen which otherwise conceals them." In the cen- 
tre of this life-circle is a glorious sun, infinitely brighter than the 
natural sun, to which she gave the name of Gnadensonne or 
Sim of Grace, and* in respect to which Eschenmayer, one of 
her expounders, says, " There are two kinds of suns : one 
which we see, and which gives us light; and which is con- 
fined to our planet-system — a mere drop hi the ocean. But 
there is another—a central sun — which we do not see, but 
from which all the stars receive their light." This is doubt- 



226 APPENDIX B. 

less the same with the " Spiritual Sun" of Swedenborg, which 
is incapable of being seen but with the eye of the spirit, nor 
even with that unless the soul is in celestial good, or is opened 
to the celestial degree, which really corresponds with the Life- 
orbit of the Seeress. The merely spiritual do not see the Sun 
of heaven as a sun. This is clearly implied in the paragraph 
that follows, in its being said that this sun is above the angelic 
heaven. " Above the angelic heaven there is a Sun, which 
is pure love, to appearance fiery, as the sun of the world; 
and from the heat which proceeds from that Sun, angels and 
men have will and love, and from the light thence they have 
understanding and wisdom; and those things which are 
thence are called spiritual ; and those things which proceed 
from the sun of the world are containers or receptacles of 
life, and are called natural ; thus the expanse of the centre of 
life is called the Spiritual World, which subsists from its 
Sun ; and the expanse of the centre of nature is called the 
Natural World, which subsists from its sun." — T. C. R. 35, 
She adds, " A somnambule can only describe what belongs 
to our sun's orbit, as the sun, moon, earth, and other planets, 
and the mid-region, which is the ethereal space around us." 
Not that even these are thus discerned from without, but from 
within, as the spirit of the sleep-seer deals not with the ex- 
ternal, but with the internal. " No somnambule has described what 
belongs to the deeper sphere of the life-orbit" This, however, in- 
dicates the loftier prerogative of Swedenborg. Leaving all 
ordinary clairvoyants at a measureless remove behind him, 
he was enabled to penetrate to the deepest arcana of every 
sphere, and lay open the mysteries of the domain of Life as 
well as that of Light. His doctrine of " Degrees," as ex- 
pounded in the " Divine Love and Wisdom," contains, in fact, 
though set forth in more scientific and luminous method, the 
substantial truth of the Seeress's theory of circles. When 
thoroughly analysed this will be found, we believe, to be no- 
thing more nor less than a kind of pictorial presentment of 
Swedenborg's sublime view of the spiritual and the celestial 
degree of the mind of man, the former of which may be de- 
veloped while the other is comparatively dormant. The one 



APPENDIX B. 227 

has relation to the Love or the principle of Life, while the 
other regards the Understanding or the principle of Intelli- 
gence. 

The Seeress's developments have a mystical, not to say a 
cabalistical air, and by being mapped out in a diagram una- 
voidably convey an idea of locality which by no means suits 
the subject. Nevertheless we gather from them a very im- 
portant item of instruction. From all she says on the sub- 
ject we are led to infer, that the inner magnetic life is a state 
essentially distinct from the inner spiritual life. From the 
disclosures made by the Seeress, it appears that while the 
lucid vision of magnetizees is a phenomenon affording no in- 
dication of the moral state of the subject, the beatific vision 
of the saints is to be regarded as the prerogative only of those 
who by true faith, by piety and prayer, and severe crucifix- 
ion of the psychical man, have attained a moral condition 
which renders them fit recipients of it. This is a very impor- 
tant consideration, inasmuch as it has been claimed by irre- 
ligious and anti-religious men, that the fact of the rapt ex- 
altation of all sorts of sleep -wakers is an adequate ground of 
belief, in the beatitude of all sorts of men hereafter, and, of 
course, of a disbelief hi a future state punishment. Thus, 
for example, a German reviewer of Kerner's work dogmatizes 
on this subject. " We see that a morally-corrupted individual 
enters, in the lucid sleep-waking crisis, upon a state of 
freedom, appears calm, lofty-souled, pure-minded, exhibits 
elevated insights and powers, becomes in fine, a glorified be- 
ing. Here then, surely, is the test : here we have the true in- 
ner man ; thus will the individual exist and manifest himself 
hereafter ; his spirit, having shuffled off its mortal coil, will 
at the same time find itself independent of all earthly preju- 
dices and trammels, and rejoice in a deathless liberty." Thus, 
too, observes the Baron Dupotet: — "All the lucid sleep- 
wakers hold a language nearly alike, and suggesting the 
idea of a partial disencumberment of the soul from its burden 
of mortality : all seem to see, hear, feel, and take cognizance 
of everything past, present and future, through some other 
channels than those physical organs which serve on ordina- 



228 APPENDIX 3. 

ry occasions to make known the volitions of the mind, a 
too, agree in declaring that they enjoy in this state an exqu 
site elysium of repose from which they dread to be disturb 
ed ; their souls, apparently half liberated, shrink from being 
again bound by the chains which fetter men down within the 
narrow sphere of suffering humanity. It is impossible to 
contemplate a lucid sleep-waker without a feeling of mingled 
wonder and awe: he is a being who appears to belong more 
to that world which is to come than to that in which Man, as 
a finite being, exists ; he already seems half disrobed of his 
carnal nature, and almost participating in the enjoyment of 
his immortality : none of us can divine what views of infini- 
ty may now open before him : all that we observe, is a being 
like ourselves, elevated into a state of temporary beatifica- 
tion, far above our sympathy and our comprehension." — Dub' 
lift Univers. Mag. p. 11, Jan. 1842. 

Let us hope then that every honest mind may be hence- 
forth disabused of the impressions growing out of the gratu- 
itous assumption that the magnetic state and the state after 
death, are alike states of one and the same being, the so-called 
soul. The assumption is undoubtedly fallacious and false. 
The lucid sleep -waking state is a mere psychological phe- 
nomenon, independent of the moral condition of the subject, 
although in certain stages it does indeed indicate a ten- 
dency to truthfulness ; whereas the state of the soul after 
death is a purely moral state of the inner man in which his 
destiny, as miserable or happy, is determined by his char- 
acter. This is unquestionably the simple truth, and any other 
inference, we do not scruple to say, is not only entirely un- 
warranted by the phenomena developed, but is a gross per- 
version of the whole subject. 



SEPARATE FUNCTIONS OF THE SOUL AND SPIRIT. 

In farther unfolding the threefold distinction above men- 
tioned, she remarked, that "in her half- waking state she 
thought only with the cerebellum ; of the cerebrum she felt 



APPENDIX B. 229 

nothing — it was asleep.* In this state she thought more with 
her soul ; her thoughts were clearer, and her spirit had more 
power over her than in her waking state. In the perfect 
sleep -waking state, the spirit had the supremacy ; and when 
she was perfectly clairvoyant, she said her thoughts proceeded 
wholly from her spirit, and the epigastric region. *' In our 
natural state of wakefulness," said she, "we feel little or no- 
thing of the spirit. But man, as he is situated in this worlds 
must be governed by the soul. If the spirit had free play, 
what would this world be? It can penetrate into things 
above ; and in his present life man must not know the fu- 
ture." 

It is undoubtedly true that we do not find in Swedenborg 
this distinction set forth in the peculiar nomenclature em- 
ployed by the Seeress. Yet the substance of it he clearly re- 
cognises under other terms, particularly those of sensual and 
spiritual. The sensual principle with him is evidently the 
same with the psychical or that of which the <^%/7> psyche, is the 
proper seat and subject. This term in the Scriptures is usu- 
ally translated soul, and the epithet i//i>x<*o<, psukikoi, Jude 19, 
though rendered in our version sensual, is literally soulish. 
This is virtually the same as the sensual man of Swedenborg, 
of whom he thus speaks : 

" It may easily be apperceived by man, if he attends, 
whether sensuals be in the first place or in the last; if he af- 
firms everything which the sensual persuades or appetites, 
and endeavors to invalidate everything which the intellectu- 
al dictates, then sensuals are in the first place, and then man 
is carried away by appetites, and is altogether sensual ; but 



* From Swedenborg, we learn that the cerebrum, in the normal 
state, is the more appropriate seat and province of thought, and the 
cerebellum of feeling. " Since all things of the mind have rela- 
tion to will and understanding, therefore in the head there are two 
brains, and these distinct from each other, as are the will and un- 
derstanding from each other: the cerebellum is particularly for the will 
and the cerebrum is particularly for the understanding." — JD. L. fy W. 
384. By the will he always means the love or affection-principle. 
He intimates, however, that the respective functions of the cere- 
brum and cerebellum become sometimes confused with each other. 
11 



230 APPENDIX B. 

such a man is little removed from the lot of the irrational ani- 
mals, for these are carried away in the same manner ; yea, 
he is in a worse condition, if he abuses the intellectual facul- 
ty or the rational to confirm the evils and falses, which sen- 
suals persuade and appetite ; but if he does not affirm, but 
from the interior sees the deviations of those sensuals into 
falses, and their excitations to evils, and strives to chasten 
them and so to reduce them to compliance, that is, to subject 
them to the intellectual and voluntary part which are of the 
interior man, then sensuals are reduced into order, that they 
may be in the last place. When sensuals are in the last 
place, then there flows in a happy and blessed principle from 
the interior man into the delights of the sensuals, and causes 
the delights thereof a thousand times to exceed the former 
delights : that this is the case, the sensual man does not be- 
lieve, because he does not comprehend, and inasmuch as he 
is sensible of no other delight than the sensual, and thinks 
that no higher delight is given, he regards as of no account 
the happy and blessed principle which is within in the de- 
lights of sensuals, for what is unknown to any one, this is be- 
lieved not to be."— A. C. 5125. 

" They who think in the sensual are called sensual, and 
like spirits are adjoined to them; these spirits scarcely appre- 
hend more things appertaining to man, than what also come 
to man's sensation ; for they are more gross than other spirits. 
It has been observed, that when man is in the sensual, and 
not elevated thence, he thinks of nothing else than what is of 
the body and the world ; and in this case he is not willing to 
know anything concerning those things which are of eternal 
life, yea he is averse from hearing anything of that life. To 
the intent that I might know that this is the case, I have occa- 
sionally been let down into the sensual, and instantly such 
things presented themselves, and then the spirits also, who 
were in that grosser sphere, infused base and scandalous 
things ; but as soon as I was withdrawn from the sensual, 
such things were dissipated. In the sensual life there are 
several who indulge hi pleasures of the body, also who have 
altogether rejected all thought beyond what they see and hear; 
and especially who have rejected thought concerning eter- 
nal life. Wherefore all such make light of both the latter and 
the former things, and when they hear, they loathe them. 
Such spirits abound in the other life at this day, for troops of 
them come from the world : and the influx from them prompts 
man to indulge his favorite inclination, and to live to himself 
and the world, but not to others, only so far as they favor 



APPENDIX B. 231 

him and his own pleasures. That man may be elevated from 
these spirits, he must think about eternal life." — A. C. 6201. 

" The interiors of man are distinct according to degrees by- 
derivations ; lights also are according to those degrees. The 
internal sensual, which is nearest to the sensuals of the body, 
has a most gross lumen; this lumen ithas been given me to 
discern by much experience ; and it was observed, that as 
often as I sunk down into this lumen, so often falses ' and 
evils of several kinds presented themselves, yea also scan- 
dals against celestial and Divine things, and moreover what 
was filthy and defiled : the reason is, because this lumen 
prevails in the hells, and the hells thereby principally flow 
in with man. When man is in this lumen, his thought is al- 
most in a like lumen with his external sight, and is then al- 
most in the body. Men, who are in this lumen, are to be 
called sensual, for they do not think beyond the sensual 
things of the body; the things beyond those, they neither 
perceive nor believe, they only believe what they see and 
touch. In this lumen are they, who have not at all cultivated 
things interior, living in the neglect and contempt of all things 
which are rational and spiritual ; and in that lumen are es- 
pecially the covetous, and adulterers, also they who have liv- 
ed in mere pleasures and in dishonorable ease. Hence these 
latter think what is filthy and often what is scandalous con- 
cerning the holy things of the church." — A. C. 6310. 

The spirits here described answer with great exactness to 
the idea conveyed by the term ^%««, or soulish, indicating the 
predominance of that principle which the Seeress calls the 
soul in contra- distinction from the spirit. Spirits of this char- 
acter were those which Mad. H. most frequently encounter- 
ed — spirits weighed down by the grossness of the psychical 
nature which still adhered to them, and though liberated by 
death from the corporeal tenement, yet still gravitating to- 
wards a corporeal sphere, and separated, as it were, only by 
a filmy partition from the inhabitants of earth. By reason of 
this cleaving carnality of nature they appeared to her as ab- 
solutely heavy when compared with the light and aerial be- 
ings who were more fully defecated and purified from the 
corruption of sin, and with whom, in consequence, she was 
less able to hold intercourse.* " The spirits who come to me 

i i ■ i ■ i miii m i ■! ■ ■ .i .!■ i — — — — — mmmumm » 

* " A belief in the proximity of spirits, and of the souls of the de- 



232 APPENDIX B. 

are mostly on the inferior steps of the mid -region, which is in 
our atmosphere; but mid-region is a misnomer, and I call it 
so unwillingly. They are chiefly spirits of those who, from 
the attraction of, and attachment to, the external world, have 
remained below — or of those who have not believed in their 
redemption through Christ — or who, in the moment of dying, 
have been troubled with an earthly thought which has clung 
to them, and impeded their upward flight. Many, who are 
neither condemned nor placed amongst the blessed immedi- 
ately after death, are on different stages of this mid-region ; 
some, whose spirits have been purified, are very high. On 
the lowest degree, these spirits are still exposed to the temp- 
tations of the wicked ; but not in the higher, wmere they al- 
ready enjoy heavenly happiness, and the purity of the bless- 
ed.*' — Seeress, p .159. 

The remarks of Eschenmayer upon these relations are 
well deserving attention : — " How the soul is to exist after 
death, is assuredly a question worth asking. A soul given 
wholly to the world retains this direction after death ; for it 
would be strange if such an one could be suddenly purified 
from his vices and sins. The existence of the soul after death 
is a universal belief; but the conditions of this existence few 
trouble themselves to inquire. This indifference is painfully 
disturbed by the Seherin, who exhibits to the worldly-minded 
the picture of their own future state, and shows us, misera- 



parted, is common to all people ; it is innate in the human breast, 
and only suppressed by education and culture. The sages of old 
speak confidently of a spiritual region, of the middle state after 
death, and of a moral weight or heaviness which, after death, 
drags the impure soul back to the earth. Plato tells us, that when 
a pure soul leaves the body, it goes at once to God and immortali- 
ty; but that the impure, who loved only their body, and studied 
only to satisfy its desires, and indulge its passions — who loved not 
wisdom, and whose eyes were blinded — cannot shake off the flesh. 
It accompanies them, and drags them down to the earth ; and the 
spectres that hover round their own graves and appear to mor- 
tals, are of those who could not separate themselves from their 
bodies, and who have preserved some means of rendering them- 
selves visible. (According to the Seherin, this is the nerve-spirit.) 
1 It is not,' says Plato, ' the pious souls, but those of the ungodly, 
who revisit the earth.'" — Seeresi,?. 1S3. 



APPENDIX B, 233 

ble, God- forsaken souls, who once enjoyed all the pleasures 
of tnis life, bearing about the burthen of their sins upon 
them." — Seeress 9 -p. 167. 

" Mrs. H. says that \ A sinful, wordly-minded man may 
shine in this life by the force of his intellect ; but his spirit is 
but the weaker and darker, and incapable of looking within. 
When he dies, the soul that sustained him here becomes only 
the husk of his spirit — the weak, dark spirit which is now the 
ruler. Alas ! what then ? A profound truth this ! The high- 
est intellectual wealth may be the accompaniment of the 
most lamentable moral poverty. But it is only our moral 
gains that will be carried to our account in the next world ; 
our knowledge will not be reckoned, for it has there no value 
unless it has been devoted to purposes of religion and vir- 
tue."— Seer ess, p. 168-169. 

How strikingly all this corresponds with Swedenborg's 
disclosures of the " world of spirits," or of that intermediate 
state called by the Seeress " the mid-region," (Hades,) into 
which the soul enters at death as a sphere of preparation 
(not of probation) for heaven or hell, must be obvious to 
every one acquainted with his system. He informs us that 
by far the greater portion of the spirits of that sphere are yet 
in their sins, and preparing, by the development of their in- 
teriors, for hell ; that they are gross and corporeal in their 
nature ; that they are dark in then aspect; that instead of the 
pure light of truth, they are encompassed by an obscure 
lumen of infatuation and phantasy ; and that they have a rest- 
less prompting to put forth their delusive influx into the minds 
of sensual men on earth. 

" There were spirits seen by me, whom it may be expedient 
to call corporeal spirits ; they arose from a depth at the side 
of the sole of the right foot, and appeared to the sight of my 
spirit as in a gross body. When I asked who they were that 
are of such a quality, it was said, that they are those who in 
the world have been distinguished by their talents, and also 
by their proficiency in the sciences, and have thereby con- 
firmed themselves entirely against the Divine, thus against 
those things which are of the church ; and because they have 
absolutely persuaded themselves that all things were to be 



234 APPENDIX B. 

attributed to nature, they have closed interior things to them- 
selves, thus the things which appertain to the spirit, more 
than others ; hence they appear grossly corporeal. Among 
them was one who, during his life in the world, had been 
known to me, and who at that time was eminent for his gifts 
of genius and his erudition ; but these things, which are the 
means of thinking well concerning things Divine, were to him 
the means of thinking against them, and of persuading him- 
self that they are nothing ; for he who excels in genius and 
learning, has more things than others by which he may con- 
firm : hence he was ulteriorly obsessed, but in the external 
form he appeared as a man of civility and good morals." — 
A. C. 5991. 

" There are also men who are more than sensual, namely, 
who are corporeal, and they are such as have altogether con- 
firmed themselves against the Divine, and have ascribed all 
things to nature, and thereby have lived without any regard 
to what is just and equitable, except only in the external 
form. These, because inwardly they are like brute animals, 
although they appear outwardly as men, are more sensual, 
and appear to themselves and others in the other life as cor- 
poreal."— Id. 6318. 

The parallelisms are very obvious in the reports of the 
the two seers, and though we do not conceive that Sweden- 
borg's statements stand in need of any such confirmations as 
we have cited, nor do we by any means put them upon a 
par with his, yet, if the Divine providence is pleased to af- 
ford an attestation from any source of the truth of his own 
message, we do not feel at liberty to reject it. 

THE LANGUAGE OF SPIRITS. 

One of the most remarkable of the Seeress' revelations is 
that respecting the inner language, or the language of spirits : — 
" In her sleep- waking state, Mrs. H. frequently spoke in a 
language unknown to us, which seemed to bear some resem- 
blance to the Eastern tongues. She said that this language 
was the one which Jacob spoke, and that it was natural to 
her and to all men. It was very sonorous ; and, as she was 
perfectly consistent in her use of it, those who were much 
about her gradually grew to understand it. She said, by it 



APPENDIX B. 235 

only could she fully express her innermost feelings ; and that, 
when she had to express these in German, she was obliged 
first to translate them from this language. It was not from her 
head, but from the epigastric region, that it proceeded. She 
knew nothing of it when she was awake. The names of 
things in this language, she told us, expressed their proper- 
ties and quality. Philologists discovered in it a resemblance 
to the Coptic, Arabic, and Hebrew : for example, the word 
Elschaddai, which she often used for God, signifies, in Hebrew, 
the self-sufficient, or all-powerful. The word dalmachan ap- 
pears to be Arabic ; and bianachli signifies, in Hebrew, I am 
sighing , or in sighs. 

" Here follow a few of the words of this inner-language, 
and their interpretations ; — Handacadi, physician ; alentana, 
lady; chlann, glass; schmado, moon; nohin, no; nochiane, 
nightingale ; bianna fina, many-colored flowers ; moy, how ; 
toi, what ; optini poga, thou must sleep ; mo li arato, I rest, 
&c. &c. 

" The written character of this language was always con- 
nected with numbers. She said that words with numbers 
had a much deeper and more comprehensive signification 
than without. She often said, in her sleep -waking state, that 
the ghosts spoke this language ; for although spirits could 
read the thoughts, the soul, to which this language belonged, 
took it with it when it went above ; because the soul formed 
an ethereal body for the spirit." — Seer ess, p. 116, 117. 

A complete alphabet of this language she professed herself 
unable to give, remarking that a single letter had often an im- 
port equivalent to a whole word. To what degree this coin- 
cides with Swedenborg's relations on the same subj ect will 
appear from what follows : — 

" All in the universal heaven have one language, and they 
all understand each other, from whatever society they are, 
whether near or distant. Language is not learned there, but 
it is implanted in every one ; for it flows from their very af- 
fection and thought. The sound of speech corresponds to 
their affection, and the articulations of sound, which are 
words, corresponds to the ideas of thought'which are from 



236 APPENDIX B. 

affection ; and because language corresponds to them, that 
also is spiritual, for it is affection sounding and thought 
speaking."— H. fy H. n. 236. 

"Angelic language h^s nothing in common with human lan- 
guages, except with some words, which sound from a cer- 
tain affection ; yet not with the words themselves, but with 
their sound, on which subject something will be said in what 
follows. That angelic language has not anything in common 
with human languages, is evident from this, that it is impos- 
sible for the angels to utter one word of human language ; 
this has been tried, but they could not : for they cannot utter 
anything but what is altogether in agreement with their af- 
fection ; that which is not in agreement is repugnant to their 
very life, for life is of affection, and their speech is from it. 
I have been told that the first language of men on our earth 
agreed with the angelic language, because they had it from 
heaven ; and that the Hebrew language agrees with it in some 
things."— Id. n. 237. 

" The speech of the angels is also full of wisdom, because it 
proceeds from their interior thought, and their interior thought 
is wisdom, as their interior affection is love ; love and wisdom 
thus conjoin themselves in their speech : thence it is so full 
of wisdom, that they can express by one word what man 
cannot express by a thousand words, and also the ideas of 
their thought comprehend such things as man cannot con- 
ceive, still less utter. Hence it is that the things which have 
been heard and seen in heaven are said to be ineffable, and 
such as ear has never heard nor eye seen. That it is so, it 
has also been given me to know by experience. I have 
sometimes been let into the state in which angels are, and in 
that state have spoken with them, and then I understood all ; 
but when I was let back into my former state, and thus into 
the natural thought proper to man, and wished to recollect 
what I had heard, I could not ; for there were thousands of 
things which were not adequate to the ideas of natural 
thought, thus not expressible, except only by variegations of 
heavenly light, and thus not at all by human words." — Id, 
n. 239. 

Speech similar to that which is in the spiritual world is 
implanted in every man, but in his interior intellectual part ; 
but because this with man does not fall into words analogous 
to affection, as with the angels, man does not know that he 
is in it ; yet it is thence that man, when he comes into the 
other life, is in the same speech with the spirits and angels 
there, and thus knows how to speak without instruction."-— 
Id. n. 243. 



APPENDIX B. 237 

The Seeress says, moreover, with respect to the inner lan- 
guage, that — " One word of it frequently expressed more than 
whole lines of ordinary language ; and that, after death, in 
one single symbol or character of it, man would read his 
whole life. It is constantly observed, that persons in a sleep - 
waking state, and those who are deep in the inner-life, find 
it impossible to express what they feel in ordinary language. 
Another somnambule used often to say to me, when she 
could not express herself, ' Can no one speak to me in the 
language of nature ?' The Seherin observed by Mayers said, 
that to man, in the magnetic state, all nature was disclosed, 
spiritual and material; but that there were certain things 
which could not be well expressed in words, and thus arose 
apparent inconsistencies and errors. In the archives of ani- 
mal magnetism, an example is given of this peculiar speech ; 
the resemblance of which to the eastern languages, doubt- 
less, arises from its being a remnant of the early language of 
mankind. Thus, sleep-wakers cannot easily recall the names 
of persons and things, and they cast away all conventionali- 
ties of speech. Mayer's Seherin says, that as the eyes and 
ears of man are deteriorated by the fall, so he has lost, in a 
great degree, the language of his sensations ; but it still ex- 
ists in us, and would be found, more or less, if sought for. 
Every sensation or perception has its proper figure or sign, 
and this we can no longer express." — Seeress, p. 124. 

The work in question contains a tentative specimen of the 
angelic written character, which, of course, is to be regarded 
as a mere approximation to the truth. We have had trans- 
cribed, and present herewith, a portion of it, mainly for the 
purpose of comparing it with what Swedenborg says of the 
style in which the Word is written in Heaven. The resem- 
blance to the Arabic is very striking. 

" As to what respects the Word in heaven, it is written in a 
spiritual style, which differs entirely from a natural style. 
The spiritual style consists of mere letters, each of which in- 
volves some particular sense ; and there are little lines, curva- 
tures and dots above and between the letters and in them, 
which exalt the sense. The letters with the angels of the 

11* 



238 



APPENDIX B. 



^M&C <& <§£* 



iO 




*^jT>^ m *^ K 



^ So -^ ^-^ 






n 





4 7 'V^© ^ 

■f. 



-f- + 




F ^{.< 



•^ + 




^ ^ 



ARABIC CHARACTER. 



""* CO *-<• < 0«> 



SPECIMEN OF THE SPIRITUAL CHARACTER COMPARED WITH THE 

ARABIC. 



APPENDIX B. 239 

spiritual kingdom are like the letters used in printing, in our 
world, and the letters with the angels of the celestial king- 
dom, are, with some, like Arabic letters, and with some like 
the old Hebrew letters, but inflected above and below, with 
marks above, between and within : each of these also in- 
volves an entire sense." " It is wonderful, that the Word in the 
heavens is so written that the simple understand it in sim- 
plicity, and the wise in wisdom ; for there are many curva- 
tures and marks above the letters, which, as was said, exalt 
the sense ; the simple do not attend to them, nor do they 
know them ; but the wise attend, each one according to his 
wisdom, even the highest." — T. C. R. n. 241. 

I present this to the reader without, of course, the implica- 
tion that he is expected to receive it as expressing my belief, 
or demanding his as to the absolute truth of the alleged fact. 
I give it simply as exhibiting a remarkable coincidence in the 
professed revelations of two independent witnesses to the 
phenomena of the spiritual world. The reader will pronounce 
upon it such a verdict as his judgment may dictate. 

ON SPIRIT- SEEING. 

On the general subject of spirit-seeing, she was asked by 
Eschenmayer whether all men see spirits, or only those in 
whom a spiritual eye shines through the fleshly one. She 
answered : — "The power of ghost-seeing resides in all men, 
but is seldom active, and only momentary, since it must be 
excited by something that calls forth the inner-man ; and this 
is generally dispersed and suppressed by reason." 

Of her own experience, in this respect, she observes as 
follows : — " Persons whose life is in the brain — but especially 
those in whom it is more in the epigastric region — are occa- 
sionally capable of ghost-seeing ; but the apparition is always 
seen by the spiritual eye through the fleshly. Through the 
soul may come presentiments, and the sensibility to spiritual 
things ; but clear-seeing never. When, however, the spirit 
is excited by the soul, presentiment and ghost-seeing may 
occur; but, with those whose life is chiefly intellectual, this 
can only be momentary. The brain can contend and resist ; 
but it is only those whose life is in the epigastric region, who 



mm 



240 APPENDIX B. 

see them as I do ; and, in such cases, there is no power of 
resistance. Certainly, these forms are not the offspring of my 
imagination, for I have no pleasure in them ; on the contrary, 
they give me pain, and I never think of them but when I see 
them, or am questioned about them. Unfortunately, my life 
is now so constituted that my soul, as well as my spirit, sees 
into the spiritual world — which is, however, indeed upon the 
earth ; and I see them not only singly, but frequently in mul- 
titudes, and of different kinds ; and many departed souls. 

" I see many "with whom I come into no approximation, 
and others who come to me, with whom I converse, and who 
remain near me for months ; I see them at various times by 
day and night, whether I am alone or in company. I am 
perfectly awake at the time, and am not sensible of any cir- 
cumstance or sensation that calls them up. I see them alike 
whether I am strong or weak, plethoric or in a state of inan- 
ition, glad or sorrowful, amused or otherwise ; and I cannot 
dismiss them. Not that they are always with me, but they 
come at their own pleasure, like mortal visiters, and equally 
whether I am in a spiritual or corporeal state at the time. 
When I am in my calmest and most healthy sleep, they 
awaken me ; I know not how, but I feel that I am awakened 
by them, and that I should have slept on had they not come 
to my bedside. I observe frequently that, when a ghost visits 
me by night, those who sleep in the same room with me are, 
by their dreams, made aware of its presence ; they speak 
afterwards of tbe apparition they saw in their dream, al- 
though I have not breathed a syllable on the subject to them. 
Whilst the ghosts are with me, I see and hear everything 
around me as usual, and can think of other subjects ; and 
though I can avert my eyes from them, it is difficult for me 
to do it ; I feel in a sort of magnetic rapport with them. They 
appear to me like a thin cloud, that one could see through, 
which, however, I cannot do. I never observed that they 
threw any shadow. I see them more clearly by sun or moon- 
light than in the dark ; but whether I could see them in abso- 
lute darkness, I do not know. If any object comes between 
me and them, they are hidden from me. I cannot see them 



APPENDIX B. 241 

with closed eyes, nor when I turn my face from them ; but I 
am so sensible of their presence, that I could designate the 
exact spot they are standing upon; and I can hear them 
speak although I stop my ears. I cannot endure that they 
should approach me very near ; they give me a feeling of 
debility. Other persons who do not see them are frequently 
sensible of the effects of their proximity when they are with 
me ; they have a disposition to faintness, and feel a constric- 
tion and oppression of the nerves ; even animals are not ex- 
empt from this effect. The appearance of the ghosts is the 
same as when they were alive, but colorless — rather greyish ; 
so is their attire — like a cloud. The brighter and happier 
spirits are differently clothed ; they have a long loose shining 
robe, with a girdle round the waist. The features of spectres 
are as when alive, but mostly sad and gloomy. Their eyes 
are bright — often like a flame. I have never seen any with 
hair. All the female ghosts have the same head-covering — 
even when over it, as is sometimes the case, they have that 
they wore when alive. This consists in a sort of veil, which 
comes over the forehead and covers the hair. The forms of 
the good spirits appear bright ; those of the evil dusky. 

M Whether it is only under this form that my senses can per- 
ceive them, and whether, to a more spiritualized being, they 
would not appear as spirits, I cannot say ; but I suspect it. 
Their gait is like the gait of the living, only that the better 
spirits seem to float, and the evil ones tread heavier ; so that 
their footsteps may sometimes be heard, not by me alone, but 
by those who are with me. They have various ways of at- 
tracting attention by other sounds besides speech ; and this 
faculty they exercise frequently on those who can neither see 
them nor hear their voices. These sounds consist in sighing, 
knocking, noises as of the throwing of sand or gravel, rust- 
ling of paper, rolling of a ball, shuffling as in slippers, &c. &c. 
They are also able to move heavy articles, and to open and 
shut doors, although they can pass through them unopened, 
or through the walls. I observe that the darker a spectre is, 
the stronger is his voice, and the more ghostly powers of 
making noises, and so forth, he seems to have. The sounds 



^42 APPENDIX B. 

they produce are by means of the airj and the nerve-spirit, 
which is still with them. I never saw a ghost when he was 
in the act of producing any sound except speech, so that I 
conclude they cannot do it visibly ; neither have I ever seen 
them in the act of opening or shutting a door, only directly 
afterwards. They move their mouths in speaking, and their 
voices are various, as those of the living. They cannot an- 
swer me all that I desire ; wicked spirits are more willing or 
able to do this, but I avoid conversing with them. These I 
can dismiss by a written word, used as an amulet, and free 
others from them as well as myself. 

" When I talk to them piously, I have seen the spirits, especi- 
ally the darker ones, draw in my words, as it were, whereby they 
become brighter ; but I feel much weaker. The spirits of the 
happy invigorate me, and give me a very different feeling to the 
others I observe that the happy spirits have the same difficulty 
in answering questions regarding earthly matters, as the evil 
ones have in doing it with respect to heavenly ones ; the first 
belong not to earth, nor the last to heaven. With the high 
and blessed spirits I am not in a condition to converse 5 1 can 
only venture on a short interrogation. I am told that, when 
asleep, I often spoke with my protecting spirit, who is amongst 
the blessed. I know not if this be so ; if it were, it must have 
been in moments when my spirit was disjoined from the soul. 
When soul and spirit are united, I cannot converse with the 
blessed." — Seer ess, p. 155-159. 

Let this be compared with the ensuing relations of Sweden - 
borg. 

" I am aware that many will say, that no one can ever 
speak with spirits and angels while he lives in the body ; and 
many, that it is a phantasy ; others that I relate such things, 
that I may gain credit ; others otherwise ; but I do not regard 
these things, for I have seen, have heard, have felt. Man 
was so created by the Lord, that during his life in the body, 
he might have a capacity of conversing with spirits and an- 
gels, as also was done in the most ancient times ; for he is 
one with them, being a spirit clothed with a body ; but be- 
cause in process of time mankind so immersed themselves 
in bodily and worldly things that they paid little regard to 
anything else, therefore the way was closed ; yet as soon as 



APPENDIX B. 2 43 

the bodily things in which he is immersed, recede, the way 
is opened, and he is among spirits, and associates his life with 
them."— A. C. 68, 69. 

" I have conversed with many after their decease, with 
whom I was acquainted during their life in the body ; and 
such conversation has been of long continuance, sometimes 
for months, sometimes for a whole year ; and with as clear 
and distinct a voice, but internal, as with friends in the 
world. The subject of our discourse has sometimes turned 
on the state of man after death ; and they have greatly won- 
dered that no one in the life of the body, knows, or believes, 
that he is to live in such a manner after the life of the body ; 
when nevertheless it is a continuation of life, and that of such 
a nature, that the deceased passes from an obscure life into 
a clear and distinct one ; and they who are in faith towards 
the Lord, into a life more and more clear and distinct. They 
have desired me to acquaint their friends on earth that they 
were alive, and to write to them an account of their states 
as I have often told them many things respecting their friends : 
but my reply was, that if I should speak to them or write to 
them, they would not believe, but would call my informa- 
tion mere fancy, and would ridicule it, asking for signs or 
miracles before they should believe ; and thus I should be 
exposed to their derision : and that the things here declared 
are true, few perhaps will believe, for men deny in their hearts 
the existence of spirits ; and they who do not deny such ex- 
istence, are yet very unwilling to hear that any one can con- 
verse with spirits. Such a faith respecting spirits did not at 
all prevail in ancient times, but (does) at this day, when men 
wish by reasonings of the brain to explore what spirits are, 
whom, by definitions and suppositions, they deprive of every 
sense ; and the more learned they wish to be, the more they 
do this."— A. C. 448. 



GROWTH OF INFANTS IN THE OTHER LIFE. * 

Another interesting item of her disclosures is that relative 
to the state of infants in the future world. " On the subject 
of the growth of children in the other world, Mrs. H. said 
— ' I once asked a spectre whether human beings grew after 
death, because I had seen some who had died in early youth 
that seemed to have become much larger ? and he answered 
— Yes ; when they are taken from earth before they are full 
grown. The soul constructs itself a larger shell till it is as 



244 APPENDIX B. 

large as required. With children this is as bright as with the 
blessed.' 

" On being asked whether the undeveloped faculties of 
children were developed after death? she answered, that 
they were developed through the nerve-spirit, which remain- 
ed with the soul ; but that we were unable to conceive the 
power and purity of children, who have all that their hea- 
venly Father gave them, not having deteriorated their soul 
and nerve- spirit by words or works. But men must not, 
therefore, desire to die in their childhood, for a life spent after 
God's will ensures a still more blessed state. But what puri- 
ty and elevation might we attain even on earth, if we did not 
so weaken the powers of our soul by our words, works, and 
thoughts. Our flesh would be purified, and all our faculties 
exalted." — Seeress, p. 162. 

Swedenborg J s informations on this head may be gathered 
from what follows : 

" Many may suppose that infants remain infants in heaven, 
and that they are as infants among the angels. Those who 
do not know what an angel is, may have been confirmed in 
that opinion, from the images "here and there in temples, 
where angels are exhibited as infants. But the case is alto- 
gether otherwise : intelligence and wisdom make an angel,, 
and so long as infants have not intelligence and wisdom, 
they are indeed with angels, yet they are not angels ; but 
when they are intelligent and wise, then first they become 
angels ; yea, what I have wondered at, then they do not ap- 
pear as infants, but as adults, for then they are no longer of 
an infantile genius, but of a more adult angelic genius ; intel- 
ligence and wisdom produce this effect. The reason that in- 
fants, as they are perfected in intelligence and wisdom, ap- 
pear more adult, thus as youths and young men, is, because 
intelligence and wisdom are essential spiritual nourishment ; 
therefore the things which nourish their minds also nourish 
their bodies, and this from correspondence ; for the form of 
the body is but the external form of the interiors. It is to be 
known that infants in heaven do not advance in age beyond 
early youth, but stop there to eternity. That I might know 
for certain that it is so, it has been given me to speak with 
some who were educated as infants in heaven, and who had 
grownup there;, with some also when they were infants, 
and afterwards with the same when they become youths ; 



APPENDIX B. 245 

and from them I have heard the course of their life from one 
age to another." — H. fy H. 340. 

" Inasmuch as food and nourishment correspond to spir- 
itual food and nourishment, thence the taste corresponds to 
the perception and the affection thereof. Spiritual food is 
science, intelligence, and wisdom, for from these spirits and 
angels live and from these are also nourished, and they de- 
sire and have appetite for them, as men who are hungry de- 
sire and have appetite for food ; hence the appetite corres- 
ponds to that desire. And what is surprising, from that food 
they also grow up to maturity : for infants who decease, 
in the other life appear not otherwise than as infants, 
and also are infants as to understanding; but in propor- 
tion as they grow in intelligence and wisdom, they ap- 
pear not as infants, but as advanced in age, and at length as 
adults : I have conversed with some who died infants, and 
they appeared to me as youths, because they were then in- 
telligent. Hence it is manifest what spiritual food and nour- 
ishment is."— A. C. 4792. 



STATE OF THE HEATHEN IN THE OTHER LIFE. 

On the state of the heathen in the other life she thus re- 
marks : " With respect to the condition of the heathen after 
death, the Seherin said, ' Some days since I asked a ghost, 
who had some degree of brightness, where he was, and with 
what he, and the spirits that were with him, engaged them- 
selves.' He answered, * I am not in the mid-region ; I am in 
a certain degree of happiness ; in that wherein are placed the 
heathens, and all those who, by no fault of their own, re- 
mained ignorant of their Lord and Saviour. We are there in- 
structed by angels until we are ripe for greater bliss.' 

" We thus learn by these revelations of the Seherin, that 
virtuous heathens, and all upright men, are destined to hap- 
piness hereafter ; but that a belief in the Christian religion be- 
ing absolutely necessary to perfect salvation, they must be 
instructed in it by angels, even after death, before they can 
enter into the kingdom of God ; and when Christ says that he 
will draw all to him, and that there shall be but one flock and 
one shepherd, he includes heathens, and alludes not only 
to the earth, but to the kingdom of heaven also ; and when 
he has sent the Gospel to the heathens, and has drawn them 



246 APPENDIX B. 

into his fold, we may be certain that a state of bliss will be 
prepared for them very different to that they aspire to." — 
Seeress, p. 163, 164. 

Not unlike this is the account which Swedenborg gives in 
speaking of the same subject. 

" It is a common opinion, that they who are born out of 
the Church, and who are called Pagans and Gentiles, cannot 
be saved, by reason that they have not the Word, and thus 
are ignorant of the Lord, without whom there is no salvation. 
But still, that these also are saved, may be known from this 
alone, that the mercy of the Lord is universal, that is, extends 
to every individual man ; that they are equally born men, as 
those who are within the Church, who are comparatively 
few, and that it is no fault of theirs that they are ignorant of 
the Lord. What, therefore, their state and lot is in the other 
life, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, was made known to 
me. 

" I have been instructed by many things, that the Gentiles 
who have led a moral life, and have been obedient, and have 
lived in mutual charity, and have received according to their 
religious (belief) somewhat like conscience, are accepted in 
another life, and are there instructed by the angels with the 
utmost care in the goods and truths of faith. When they are 
instructed, they behave themselves modestly, intelligently, 
and wisely, and easily receive and imbibe, for they have 
formed to themselves no principles contrary to the truths of 
faith, which are to be dispersed, still less scandals against the 
Lord, as is the case with many Christians who have led a 
life of evil ; moreover, such Gentiles hold no hatred towards 
others, do not revenge injuries, nor weave cunning stratagems 
and artifices, yea, they wish well to Christians, although 
Christians on their part despise them, and even do them in- 
jury to the utmost of their power ; but these are delivered by 
the Lord from their unmercifulness, and are protected. For 
with respect to Christians and Gentiles in another life, the 
case is this : Christians who have acknowledged the truths 
of faith, and at the same time have led a life of good, are ac- 
cepted before Gentiles, but such Christians at this day are few 
in number ; whereas Gentiles, who have lived in obedience 
and mutual charity, are accepted before Christians who have 
not led a good life. For all persons, throughout the universe 
are, of the mercy of the Lord, accepted and saved, who have 
lived in good, good itself being that which receives truth, and 
the good of life being the very ground of the seed, that is, of 
truth ; evil of life never receives it ; although they who are in evil 



APPENDIX B. 247 

should be instructed a thousand ways, yea, though the instruc- 
tion should be most perfect, still the truths of faith with them 
would enter no further than into the memory, and would not 
penetrate into the affection, which is of the heart ; wherefore 
also the truths of their memory are dissipated, and become 
no truths in another life. 

" But there are amongst the Gentiles, as amongst Christians, 
both wise and simple ; and, that I might be instructed con- 
cerning the qualities of each, it has been given to converse 
with them, sometimes for hours and days : at this day how- 
ever there are scarce any of the Gentiles who are wise, 
whereas in ancient times there were great numbers, espe- 
cially in the ancient Church, which was the source whence 
wisdom flowed to many nations." — A. C. 2589-2591. 

" Upright Gentiles in another life, are generally instructed 
according to the states of their lives, and according to their 
religious principles, so far as it is possible, consequently in 
different modes."-— A. C. 2600. 

THE FORMS OF SPIRITS. 

On the appearance of a certain spirit, Mrs. H. asked him if 
he could take any other form than that he had as a man. 
He answered — " Had I lived as a brute, I should so appear to 
you. We cannot take what forms we will : as our disposi- 
tions are, so we appear to you."-— Seeress, p. 269. 

The accordance of this with Swedenborg's teaching is very 
obvious. 

" Among the wonderful things which exist in the other life, 
this also is one, that when the angels of heaven inspect evil 
spirits, these latter appear altogether otherwise than as they 
appear among themselves. When evil spirits and genii are 
among themselves, and in their infatuated lumen, such as is 
from a coal fire, as was said above, they then appear to them- 
selves in ahuman form, and also according to their phantasies, 
not unbeautiful. But when the same are inspected by the 
angels of heaven, then that lumen is instantly dissipated, and 
they appear with an altogether different face, each according 
to his genius ; some dusky and black as devils, some with 
pale ghastly faces like corpses, some almost without a face, 
and in its place something hairy, some like grates of teeth, 
some like skeletons ; and what is more wonderful, some like 
monsters ; the deceitful like serpents, and the most deceitful 
like vipers, and others in different forms. But as soon as the 



248 APPENDIX B. 

angels remove from them their sight, they appear in their 
previous form, which they have in their own lumen. * * * 
The reason why angelic sight has in it such efficacy, is, be- 
cause there is a correspondence between intellectual and ocu- 
lar sight ; hence there is in the sight of the angels a perspi- 
cacity, whereby the infernal lumen is dissipated, and the in- 
fernals appear in such a form and genius as they really are"— 
A. C. 4533. 

" When the spirit of man first enters the world of spirits, 
which takes place shortly after his resuscitation, spoken of 
above, he has a similar face and a similar tone of voice to 
what he had in the world ; the reason is, because he is then 
in the state of his exteriors, nor are his interiors as yet uncov- 
ered : this state is the first state of men after their decease. 
But afterwards the face is changed, and becomes quite an- 
other one ; it becomes similar to his ruling affection or love, 
in which the interiors of his mind had been in the world, and 
in which his spirit was in the body. For the face of man's 
spirit differs very much from the face of his body ; the face 
of the body is from the parents, but the face of the spirit from 
its affection, of which it is the image ; into this the spirit 
comes after the life in the body, when the exteriors are re- 
moved and the interiors are revealed : this is the third state 
of man. I have seen some recently from the world, and 
knew them from their face and speech, but when they were 
afterwards seen, I did not know them : those who were in 
good affections were seen with beautiful faces, but those who 
were in evil affections, had faces deformed ; for the spirit of 
man, viewed in itself, is nothing but its own affection, the 
external form of which is the face. The reason also why the 
faces are changed, is, because in the other life it is not law- 
ful for any one to counterfeit affections which are not proper- 
ly his own, thus neither to induce on himself faces contrary 
to the love in which he is ; all, whoever are there, are reduced 
into such a state that they speak as they think, and show by 
the looks and gestures what they will. Hence now it is that 
the faces of all are the forms and effigies of their affections." — 
H. 1} H. 457. 

"After having passed through the first and second state, 
they are so separated that they no longer see e^ch other nor 
know each other ; for every one becomes his own love, not 
only as to the interiors which are of the mind, but also as to 
the exteriors which are of the face, the body, and the speech ; 
for every one becomes the effigy of his own love, even in ex- 
ternals. Those who are corporeal loves appear gross, obscure, 



APPENDIX B. 249 

black and deformed; but those who are heavenly loves, ap- 
pear fresh, bright, fair and beautiful. They are likewise alto- 
gether dissimilar as to their minds and thoughts ; those who 
are heavenly loves are also intelligent and wise, but those 
who are corporeal loves are stupid, and as it were sottish. 
When it is given to inspect the interiors and exteriors of the 
thought and affection of those who are in heavenly love, the 
interiors appear like light, in some like flaming light, and the 
exteriors in various beautiful colors like rainbows : but the 
interiors of those who are in corporeal love appear as some- 
thing black, because they are closed, and of some as dusky 
fire, who are those who had been interiorly in malignant de- 
ceit; and the exteriors appear of a dirty color, and disagree- 
able to the sight."— Id. n. 481. 

" All spirits in the hells, when inspected in any light of 
heaven, appear in the form of their own evil ; for every one 
is an effigy of his own evil, inasmuch as with every one the 
interiors and exteriors act as one, and the interiors present 
themselves visible in the exteriors, which are the face, the 
body, the speech, and the gestures ; thus their quality is re- 
cognized as soon as they are seen. It is impossible to de- 
scribe in a few words all those forms such as they appear, for 
one is not like to another ; only between those who are in 
similar evil, and thence in a similar infernal society, there is 
a general similitude, from which, as from a plane or deriva- 
tion, the faces of each appear there to have a kind of likeness. 
In general, their faces are direful, and void of life like 
corpses ; in some they are black, in some fiery like little 
torches, in some disfigured with pimples, warts, and ulcers ; 
in some no face appears, but in its stead something hairy or 
bony, and in some teeth only are exhibited. Their bodies 
also are monstrous; and their speech is as the speech of 
anger, or of hatred, or of revenge ; for every one speaks from 
his own falsity, and the tone of his voice is from his own 
evil : in a word, they are all images of their own hell. In 
what form the specific hells are, or the infernal societies, it 
has often been given me to see ; for at their appertures, 
which are called the gates of hell, for the most part appears 
a monster, which in general represents the form of those 
who are within ; the fierce passions of those who dwell there 
are then at the same time represented by things direful and 
atrocious, the particular mention of which I omit." — H fy H. 
n. 553. 

SPIRITS SEEN BY A SPIRITUAL EYE. 

On one occasion the Seeress remarked that "spirits are 



250 APPENDIX B. 

seen by the spiritual eye through the fleshly one."* In like 
manner Swedenborg observes, that " it is to be known that 
they who are in the other life, cannot see anything that is in 
the world through the eyes of any man ; the reason why they 
could see through my eyes was, because I am in the spirit 
with them, and at the same time in the body with those who 
are in the world. And it is further to be known, that I did 
not see those with whom I discoursed in the other life, with 
the eyes of my body, but with the eyes of my spirit — but 
still as clearly, and sometimes more clearly, than with the 
eyes of my body, for, by the divine mercy of the Lord, the 
things which are of my spirit have been opened." — A.C. 4622. 

THE ILLUMINATED EYE. 

We have adverted on a previous page to the singular ap- 
pearance induced upon Swedenborg's eye in consequence of 
the development of his faculty of spiritual vision. That a 
similar phenomenon was witnessed in the case of the Seeress, 
appears from what follows : — 

"From her eyes there shone a really spiritual light, of 
which every one who saw her became immediately sensi- 
ble."— p. 57. 

" Her natural disposition was gentle, kind and serious ; 
ever disposed to contemplation and prayer ; her eyes had 
something spiritual in their expression, and always remained 
clear and bright in spite of her great suffering ; they were 
penetrating, and in conversation very varying ; they were 
sometimes suddenly fixed, and seemed to emit sparks : a cer- 
tain sign that she beheld some strange apparitions." — p. 60. 

" No person who had ever seen the peculiar piercing look 
(Stechblick) that Mrs. H.'s eyes assumed, and which each 
time was accompanied by a sort of nervous shock, which 
pervaded the whole body, when she perceived the image of 
the inner man in any one's eye, could for a moment doubt 

* "A sister of Mrs. H.'s, a very simple, unsophisticated girl, had 
so acute a sensibility to the proximity of these immaterial beings, 
that, without actually seeing them with her eyes, she could give a 
description of their appearance according with the polity described 
by Mrs. H. She said, * I do not see them with my ordinary eyes 
— I see them from within.' Yet this girl was never somnambulic, 
and was in perfect health." 



APPENDIX B. 251 

that she had a faculty of seeing different to that of ordinary 
human beings," — p. 166. 

So she says of spectres, that " their features are mostly as 
when alive, and their eyes bright, often like a flame." — p. 77. 

It would doubtless be an easy matter to extend much far- 
ther this list of parallelisms, but it would require such copi- 
ous citations from Swedenborg to present the items in their 
true light, that I forbear. The fact of the coincidences must 
be very obvious, and the grand conclusion equally so, that 
the human race is in the closest conjunction with the spirit- 
ual world, and that Swedenborg has developed the laws by 
which that relation is governed. With the present accumu- 
lation of facts before us, and with such a power of internal 
evidence as attaches to his revelations, we cannot but regard 
it as idle to dispute the soundness of his claim to a super- 
natural insight into the verities of the world unseen. This 
claim is to be decided upon by the truth or falsity of the fun- 
damental principles on which his disclosures rest. A thousand 
objections may be urged against the details of the system; 
but the main question is that which regards the principles. If 
these are sound and incontrovertible, and what are called the 
details flow by legitimate sequence from them, they obviously 
cannot be wrought into a plea which shall go to nullify the 
force of the evidence that sustains the principles. These prin- 
ciples are psychological. They involve the true nature of 
the human soul. If that is what Swedenborg affirms — if the 
soul is the real man, and the body a mere mass of machinery 
by which to execute its promptings — then we see not but all 
that he has stated respecting its future conditions will inevit- 
ably follow. But the truth in regard to the nature of the soul 
is a truth that is to be apprehended independent of the liter- 
al averments of the Scriptures, as much so as the truth of 
Astronomy or Geology, and this truth, when once reached, 
is imperative on our belief, and must necessarily control our 
interpretations of the sacred text. No intelligent man feels 
himself bound to forego the conclusions of his reason in re- 
gard to the structure of the solar system, and the age of the 
earth, because he finds the inspired writers adopting the Ian- 



252 APPENDIX B. 

guage of appearances and accommodating themselves to popu- 
lar apprehensions. So we hold that the intuitions of the hu- 
man mind, when they have free scope, must recognize the 
intrinsic truth of Swedenborg's doctrine of the soul. But his 
doctrine on that head cannot be viewed apart from the 
whole body of his disclosures of the spiritual world, to which 
the soul, even while sojourning in the body, properly belongs. 
It is part and parcel of the same great system of spiritual ex- 
istences. The true issue then in regard to Swedenborg is not 
primarily that which concerns an asserted mass of visions, 
but the truth of certain grand psychological laws of our be- 
ing, which is to be determined by its own internal evidence. 
This issue, however, has thus far been uniformly avoided by 
the opponents of the system. As if by one consent, they in- 
variably urge their warfare agamst what they are pleased to 
denominate the incredible and absurd features of the revela- 
tions. Heedless of all protest against the crying injustice of 
such a procedure, they still persist in hurling their arugmen- 
tative missiles against the outworks and projections of the 
citadel without any attempt to sap or undermine its founda- 
tions. The shout is — the visions ! — the visions ! as if a more 
senseless rhodomontade could never have entered the imagin- 
ation of man. To all this our calm reply is, weigh the fundamental 
psychological principles, and see if the truth of the visions can 
be resisted. So also in regard to the great fact of an internal 
sense pervading the Word, the order of assault is always to 
hold up to odium and contempt the specific interpretations, 
with a total disregard of the philosophical basis on which 
they rest. We ask if man has not a spiritual nature which 
absolutely compels the inference, that just in proportion as 
that nature is developed, he will necessarily affix spiritual 
ideas to what we may term material expressions ? But a 
spiritual idea is one that excludes space and time, and as 
death introduces a spirit into a sphere in which space and 
time are unknown, such a spirit comes of course into a spir- 
itual perception of the universal contents of the Word. They 
are rendered at once universal truth. But the exaltation of 
the inner nature in the present life brings the soul, in its mea- 



APPENDIX B. 253 

sure, Into angelic perception, and thus into a community of 
views with them on all spiritual themes. Is this ridicu- 
lous or absurd ? Is there not here the assertion of a principle 
which claims consideration ? Is a man who holds this view 
a fair butt at which to aim the shafts of scorn as having re- 
nounced his reason and given in to the wildest dreams and 
fancies ? Show him the fallacy of his positions, and he will 
then consent that you shall make game ex abundanti of the 
crudities of his faith. 

It is then the internal evidence of the truth of the under- 
lying philosophy of Swedenborg's system which commands 
the credence of its receivers, and enforces its claims upon 
the world. But we know too well the innate aversion of the 
mass of men to that cool, deep, and dispassionate reflection 
which the subject demands in order to a just judgment to war- 
rant the expectation of its being generally entertained, unless in 
consequence of something which may be termed a violent 
motive to inquiry. In the case of Christianity such a motive 
was supplied by miracles, which were a merely external 
testimony compelling attention to that which was internal ; 
for miracles do not of themselves beget faith in the truth of 
moral doctrines, but merely put the mind into an attitude 
favorable to the perception of that internal evidence on which 
alone their truth can be effectually received. At the present 
day we are not taught to anticipate the working of miracles 
such as distinguished the introduction of Christianity, for 
there is no new religion to be commended to acceptance, 
but simply the development of the interior genius of that 
which is already established. This development consists 
mainly in disclosing the hidden grounds of the accordance 
between the teachings of that religion and the interior laws 
and constitution of our nature. It may, therefore, be 
reasonably anticipated that the confirmations by which this 
shall be authenticated will be of an analogous nature— that 
they will grow out of some new phasis of the laws of our 
being — that they will be something which, while it will 
strike the senses, will at the same time address the reason 
in a voice too loud to be resisted — and which shall thus ab- 



254 APPENDIX C. 

solutely force the mind to a comparison of the phenomena in 
the two spheres of development. Mesmerism, we think, 
answers to these conditions. The facts of Mesmerism we 
regard as the miracles of this age. Not that they are intrin- 
sically miraculous, for we have seen that they are the product 
of the fixed laws of physiology and pneumatology, but they 
subserve the ends of miracles in compelling attention to 
the spiritual disclosures with which they inseparably connect 
themselves, and which must in the end as assuredly confirm 
the claims of Swedenborg as the truth of the facts is estab- 
lished. This is the issue which we confidently anticipate, 
and the Christian world can therefore readily explain to itself 
how it is, that the receivers of his doctrines are not in the 
slightest degree moved by any form or degree of opposition 
to a system which they have embraced as the result of the 
most profound inquiry and the most careful induction. They 
have reached and settled calmly down in the conviction, 
not only that Swedenborg's revelations are true, but that their 
truth is of such a character, that it is impossible to conceive that 
the facts should be otherwise, except by a total subversion of 
the known laws of our nature. They will unanimously 
affirm, that the principles which would prove their conclu- 
sion erroneous would sweep away the grounds of every 
human judgment. 



APPENDIX C. 

SWEDISH DOCUMENT RESPECTING THE RELATION OF SWEDENB ORG'S 
DOCTRINES TO ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 

The ensuing document derives peculiar interest from the 
date of its publication, which was as early as 1787, fifteen 
years after the death of Swedenborg. It is a letter addressed 
by the " Exegetical and Philanthopical Society" of Stockholm 
to the Magnetic Association of Strasburgh, called " La Societe 
des Amis reunis," which was formed for the purpose of pros- 



APPENDIX C. 255 

ecuting careful inquiries into the nature and effects of Ani- 
mal Magnetism, the results of which continued for many- 
years to be published in a journal devoted to the subject. Of 
the society at Stockholm, from which the letter emanated, 
we know little more than that it was instituted for the pur- 
pose of extending the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, by 
publishing Swedenborg's writings in the various languages of 
Europe, together with a new and amended edition of Sebastian 
Schmidt's Latin version of the Bible, which was the one that 
Swedenborg habitually used. From a notice of the society 
in the " N. J. Magazine," Lond. 1790 (vol. I. p. 25), it appears 
that it was " first founded in the year 1786, by a few friends to 
truth, and successively increased till their aumber amounted 
to more than two hundred persons, the greatest part of 
whom were men holding respectable offices in the State, and 
of distinguished learning, and the majority of them clergy- 
men, not to mention two of the first princes in Europe, who 
took upon themselves the patronage of the Society." 

In another notice in the same work, contained in a letter 
•from Stockholm, dated 1789, it is said that " ever since the in- 
stitution of the Exegetic and Philanthropic Society, but especi- 
ally in the course of the two last years, a considerable num- 
ber of the clergy have been introduced into the new doctrine. 
In one single bishoprick we can now reckon no less than 
forty-six respectable and profoundly learned clergymen, of whom 
I send you herewith a list." 

This letter, which is accompanied by an address to the 
king that we also insert, is remarkable for the vein of sim- 
ple-hearted and devout piety which it breathes, and for the 
evidence it affords that the writers were early struck with the 
obvious relation, which we have endeavored to establish, in 
the preceding pages, between the facts of Animal Magnetism, 
then recently become known, and the doctrines of Sweden- 
borg. The fact is worthy to be commended to the attention 
of New Churchmen at the present day, who we believe have 
been, for the most part, opposed to the mixing up in any 
way, of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem with the alleg- 
ed developments of Mesmerism, though they have, at the 



256 APPENDIX C. 

same time, been disposed to admit their abstract truth. From 
the view here presented it does not appear, that these early 
receivers apprehended any danger as likely to ensue from the 
recognition of the bearing which the Magnetic phenomena 
were seen to have upon the disclosures admitted to have 
been made by Swedenborg. That an impression to this 
effect should have been generally entertained in this country, 
is not perhaps surprising when we reflect, that the first an- 
nouncement of these marvels was received with a universal 
incredulity, and the whole subject treated as deserving 
only of contempt and ridicule. In this state of things it was 
natural that the disciples of the New Church should look 
with a jealous eye upon any kind of alliance between such a 
mass of reputed delusions, and the sublime verities to which 
they had given their cordial assent, and for which they had 
in many cases incurred odium and obloquy. They wished, 
therefore, that the skirts of their religious faith might be 
kept clear from the contaminating contact of anything that 
bore with the public so bad a name as Mesmerism. It was 
not a slight reproach that attached to the profession qf 
what they did fully and cordially believe. They would not, 
therefore, willingly countenance pretensions which would be 
apt to load their belief with gratuitous prejudice. But the 
course of time has witnessed to the progress of truth. Mes- 
merism has gradually, in a great measure, triumphed over 
the obloquy that assailed its outset. It is now very generally 
conceded to involve a substantial truth, what ever abatement 
on particular points may accompany the admission. Under 
these circumstances the time seems to have come for taking 
stronger grounds hi regard to its remarkable phenomena, and 
this, we think, can only be done by presenting them in 
the light of the New Church revelations. This we have 
attempted in the present work. It will be strange if those 
who are really most interested in such an expose should 
be the ones who stand most decidedly aloof from it. But to 
the document itself, for the translation of which, from the 
Swedish, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. F. A. Strahle. 
The reader will not feel himself bound to accept all the pro- 



APPENDIX C. 257 

posed solutions of facts, especially those which imply the 
complete possession of diseased patients by spirits. For our- 
selves we do not by any means bring out this conclusion in 
interpreting the Mesmeric facts in connection with Sweden- 
borg's doctrines. We give the article mainly as a historical 
document. 

To his Majesty the King (Gustavus III). 
Most Mighty and Gracious Sovereign. 
Among the blessings, which, through the ordering of an 
all- wise Providence, present themselves to elevate your Ma- 
jesty's reign to that legitimate and ever enduring glory, which 
statesmanship, from its natively vacillating counsels, is so in- 
adequate to reach, the foremost place undeniably belongs to 
that new Heavenly Revelation, which the Lord in His infinite 
mercy, has vouchsafed to communicate to mankind through 
one of your Majesty's subjects, the .departed Emanuel Swe- 

DENBORG. 

However common it has been in all ages, that " a Prophet 
hath no honor in his country," yet now, since the above men- 
tioned divine revelation and system of doctrine for the Lord's New 
Church upon earth, has been for several years, in the more en- 
lightened countries of Europe, acknowledged and eulogized 
by lovers of truth, with all that reverence, love, and admira- 
tion which its invaluable worth and benefit to all ages, for 
time and eternity, deserves ; the turn has at last come to our, 
otherwise in its temperament so frigid and dilatory nation, 
to be aroused by the blaze of this heavenly light. Its first 
rays have touched some among your Majesty's loyal sub- 
jects, of all classes, and they have, for their mutual encour- 
agement and instruction in the knowledge and practice of 
what is the Divine Goodness and Truth, united themselves 
into an " Exegetical and Philanthropic Society" instituted in this 
City the past year, on the birthday of His Royal Highness, 
the Crown Prince, on the 1st of November, and strengthened 
since that time by the addition of a worthy and considerable 
number of members, both national and foreign. 

Praised be the name of the Lord for ever, who has permit- 
ted us all, the present members of this Society, to live until 
this day in peace and quietness, under a Christian govern- 
ment, and your Majesty's mild and righteous sway; for 
which blessing we daily, from grateful hearts, offer up to the 
Highest, prayers and thanksgiving for the King, so that we 
may for time to come " lead a quiet and peaceable life in all 
godliness and honesty ; for this is good and acceptable in the 
sight of God our Saviour." 



258 APPENDIX C. 

Such are our united and invariable sentiments, to which, 
through the Lord's grace, we hope that our manner of living 
shall ever correspond; our doctrines also not tolerating any- 
thing differing from this ; for their fundamental principle is 
" that no one can attain eternal happiness in the Kingdom of 
Heaven, except in as far as he in this life has been a good 
subject and citizen in his earthly father-land." (Vide Doctrina 
Novce Hierosolymce Ccelestis, No. 93.) 

This solemn declaration before God, of our irrevocable sen- 
timents, in which it is our purpose to live as Christians and 
happily to die, we lay at the foot of the throne of our most 
indulgent Sovereign, with the deepest feelings of respect and 
attachment ; praying submissively, and supplicating for our- 
selves, the present as well as the future, both national and 
foreign Brethren under the dominion of your Majesty, as be- 
ing one and all Professors of the pure Christianity of the Bible 
and of that Divine doctrine which the Lord has been pleased 
to reveal to his New Church, and which is founded there- 
upon; to be continued undisturbed for the future, in the gra- 
cious favor and protection of your Royal Majesty. 

Most gracious King ! The cure of diseases by means of 
Magnetism, and its adjunct, Somniloquism, are subjects which 
at the present time attract the public attention in most Eu- 
ropean countries. 

Several worthy and distinguished members and friends of 
the " Exegetical and Philanthropic Society" have also taken 
cognizance of these two important discoveries. 

Among the former, or the actual members of the Society, 
many estimable gentlemen have not only informed them- 
selves about the many curious phenomena connected with 
these discoveries, from foreign journals, but have also insti- 
tuted experiments themselves, or else have become attentive, 
impartial and critical witnesses of the answers put forth by 
sleep-talkers to questions proposed, on which occasions also 
many of the latter, or the friends of the Society, have been 
present. 

These gentlemen have, by these means, become con- 
vinced that these phenomena, when looked upon from a 
proper stand-point, that is, with reference, not to vain curiosity, 
but to the real benefit of mankind, never can, in their on'gmand 
characteristics, as also in their already known or yet to be develop- 
ed effects and consequences, be satisfactorily explained, unless 
regarded in harmony with a true and genuine knowledge of 
the Creator, Man, and Nature. 

As this knowledge, in its highest and most perfect purity, 
is found in that Divine Revelation which the Lord has beei} 
pleased to give mankind in the Bible, as well as in those 



APPENDIX C. 259 

doctrinal writings which his infinite Goodness, and Wisdom 
have dictated, inspired and recorded for His New Church 
upon earth, the before mentioned members and friends of the 
Society, have deemed it profitable, that such truths as may 
be serviceable to the object contemplated, should be collected 
from these Divine and heavenly sources. 

Most gracious King ! Such is the motive for putting forth 
the present treatise, which the Society felt it a duty to pre- 
sent in print, as a subject for farther reflection. The sketch 
of the practical use and application of this science in every-day life, 
which the Society has found occasion to exhibit in this little 
work, and which object ought always to be the aim of pure 
Christianity, will, it is hoped, with the blessing of God, not 
be without fruit among readers who love virtue and properly 
value the truth. 

The Society has also considered the opportunity of send- 
ing this Treatise to other countries, as appropriate for obtain- 
ing information respecting the increase of solicitude to become 
thoroughly acquainted in its whole extent with the New Divine 
Communication vouchsafed to the Lord's New Church, which 
may have spread in the more important European coun- 
tries ; in order that the Society may hereafter more definitely 
fix upon the best time to execute certain of its adopted de- 
signs in regard to publishing, 1st. Sebastian Schmidt's faith- 
ful and excellent Latin version of the Bible, and which is to 
contain Emanuel Swedenborg's amendments, in accordance 
with the original Hebrew and Greek texts. 2d. The Lord's 
Divine Revelation to His New Church in the original Latin. 
3d. Complete and exact translations of the foregoing works 
in French, no less than in the vernacular tongue of our own 
country. 

And in order to secure the execution of the above-men- 
tioned projects in this our country, so that the expense of the 
several editions, as well as the profits from foreign sales of 
the same, may remain in the land, the Society do most hum- 
bly beseech your Majesty to grant them his gracious copy- 
right and privilege for these and other works yet to appear, 
with exemption from the shackles of censorship ; a great and 
royal favor which the Society, in view of the immense im- 
portance of this their undertaking, viz. the benefit of sound 
instruction to mankind on subjects which most intimately 
concern their happiness and well-being for time and for eter- 
nity, in the greatest humility venture to assure themselves, 
can never be refused to the Society by a great, enlightened, 
mild and righteous Sovereign ; it being, on the contrary, their 
most ardent desire and lively hope, that Heaven in infinite 
mercy has chosen as a blessing and a protector to her New 



260 APPENDIX c. 

Church, for the new heaven-descended city, a King, whom a 
kind and all-wise Providence has set over this northern land, 
out of which the Lord has called that Messenger whom he 
has been graciously pleased to make use of to record and 
publish his Divine Revelation to his New Church : in order 
that in both these important particulars might be fulfilled 
what the Lord has foretold : " Behold, these that go toward 
the north country have "quieted (or, caused to rest,) my spirit 
in the north country" (Zech. vi. 8). 

In an age such as the present, when religious persecution 
is regarded by every wise government with that detestation 
which it deserves, no Swedish citizen, and least of all the 
members of this Society, can so far misapprehend the princi- 
ples according to which our beloved country is governed by 
your Majesty, as to suppose that the Society can be actuated 
in taking the step which we now in all humility undertake, 
from fear of any exhibition of that intolerance which leads 
the way only to darkness and barbarism. No ; reasons and 
motives quite different and more momentous have confirmed 
our conviction, that the time is now arrived when that Divine 
light which the LORD so mercifully has caused to spring up 
in our beloved country, must no longer be " covered with a 
bushel, or be put under a bed ; but it is to be set on a can- 
dlestick, so that they which enter in may see the light : for 
nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither any- 
thing hid that shall not be known and come abroad." Ac- 
cording as every one, ruler as well as subject, shall examine, 
receive and follow this divine light of truth, so shall be their 
destiny in this world and hi that which is to come ; " for who- 
soever hath, to him shall be given ; and whosoever hath not, 
from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to 
have." Providence will no longer permit, as the time of the 
Lord's Second Advent draws near, that truth shall be paired 
with vice, virtue with falsehood, or Christ with Belial ; for the 
time is now again at hand, of which it is said : u One might- 
ier than I cometh ; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire ; whose fan is in his hand, and he will thorough- 
ly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner ; 
but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." Yes, 
" the time is at hand ; he that is unjust, let him be unjust 
still : and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that 
is righteous, let him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, 
let Mm be holy still. And behold ! I come quickly, and my re- 
ward is with me, to give to every man according as his work 
shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, 
the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his command^ 



APPENDIX c. 26 i 

ments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may 
enter in through the gates into the city." 

Most gracious King ! the Society have considered them- 
selves bound to submit this short account of their general 
proceedings, and the object of the present treatise in particu- 
lar, in the present form, with all humility, to your Majesty. 

The Society commend themselves to the high favor and 
protection of your Majesty for ever, with the most fervent 
prayers and ardent wishes for your Majesty's happiness. 
Most mighty and gracious King, 
Your Royal Majesty's 

Most humble and loyal subjects, 
The Exegetical and Philanthropic Society. 



LETTER TO THE « SOCIETIE DES AMIS REUNIS," AT 

STRASBURG. 

Gentlemen, — The genuine benefits which accrue to man- 
kind through your useful researches and unremitting labor to 
alleviate its sufferings, have awakened in us that respect and 
veneration which always are the concomitants of philan- 
thropic virtue and active wisdom; and we hereby assure you, 
worthy sirs, of the pleasure which we have experienced in 
reading those learned and important works, which some of 
your members have published on the subject of Animal 
Magnetism. 

Several of the members of our Society have practised mag- 
netizing diligently and with success ; and these experiments 
have contributed much to direct our attention to the true prin- 
ciples of Magnetism and Somnambulism, and consequently 
to a solution of the phenomena which they exhibit. Permit 
us, then, to lay before you the results of our investigations of 
these subjects. 

We believe that those systems which have their foundation 
in mere physical causes, as " La Psycologie Sacree de Lyon," 
are quite inadequate to explain how those singular effects 
take place and are produced, which Magnetism and Som- 
nambulism present. It seems to be impossible fully and ra- 
tionally to explain them, unless we once for ah, and without 
shrinking from the shafts of ridicule, take it for granted that 
spiritual beings exert an influence upon the organs of the in- 
valid during the time that the power of Magnetism has pro- 
duced a partial cessation of the functions of the soul, and that 
these spiritual agents, in virtue of the higher degrees of knowl- 
edge which they possess, originate these wonderful and 
12* 



262 APPENDIX C. 

otherwise inexplicable phenomena. To maintain that the hu- 
man soul, or the primitive Ego (as it is called in the language 
of the " Psycologie Sacree") can effect anything of this kind, 
or know anything about it, after the paroxysm, would be to 
assume facts which militate against reason, and are contro- 
verted by the ideas which we entertain respecting the human 
soul ; namely, that its essence consists in the will and the 
understanding ; properties which can never exist, except man 
possesses self-consciousness (conscientia sui), which som- 
nambulists generally do not. 

Being at the present time engaged in the examination of 
those manuscripts which were left to us by our enlightened 
countryman Emanuel Swedenborg, we have transcribed a 
few passages from them which serve to throw light upon 
these subjects, and herewith subjoin these extracts, together 
with some others from his printed works ; all of which may 
be useful in explaining the causes of disease, the operations 
of Magnetism, and the real state of the sleep-talker; all of 
which is drawn from that true theory of the soul and its in- 
fluence upon the body, which we briefly insert at the close 
of the extracts.* We propose, should you so desire, further 
to pursue the analysis and proofs of the truths therein con- 
tained, and should consider ourselves very fortunate if we 
should succeed in imparting to them that importance and 
weight which, in the estimation of every virtuous lover of 
knowledge and friend of humanity, they so richly deserve. 

We defer, for the present, letting our memoranda of the 
experiments so often by us repeated, be seen in print. Ex- 
periments have irresistibly strengthened us in the belief of 
those principles which we here disclose, as being the only 
satisfactory clue to all the phenomena appertaining to Mag- 
netism and Somnambulism. We will, however, remark in 
this place, by way of introduction, that every true friend of 
his species and sincere worshiper of virtue and truth, who 
with sincere and humble prayer to " the Lord that healeth," 
begins in full reliance on Him to magnetize the sick, after 
preparing them for a similar frame of mind, may convince 
himself by personal experience of the effective power of this 
remedy : a remedy known in ancient times, and now, through 
Divine Providence, restored to mankind for purposes worthy 
of His goodness and wisdom, and which will undoubtedly 
more and more develop e themselves to those who desire to 
know them with a view of doing good. Every Magnetiser, 

* We omit the insertion of these extracts, as they are, for the 
most part, the same with those which we have given in the body 
of the work. 



appendix e. 263 

after having brought his patient into a state of sleep -talking, 
may at pleasure not only convince himself that the sleep - 
talker is a different being from the patient, but also come to 
the knowledge of who t^at being is, and of a thousand other 
wonderful things respecting another life, religious truths, and 
the inward state of man. A Magnetizer speaking only to the 
spirit as to another person, and not to the sleeper, can, by ra- 
tional, directed, and well-digested questions, render it practi- 
cable for the spirit to make itself known as a being differing 
from him whose tongue it makes use of. This communica- 
tion seems not to fall within the sphere of those beings who 
speak through the organs of the sleeper, before, by the Lord's 
permission, those present by their questions, thus arranged, 
have opened the way. But every one who will institute these 
experiments, must be careful not to abuse them by an impro- 
per curiosity ; for such an abuse would not fail to provoke 
the infliction of well-deserved chastisement. 

We make this remark after mature deliberation, and for 
reasons which have great influence upon our hearts; and 
are prepared to meet every objection or contradiction, and 
even, if necessary, that ridicule and mockery which may be 
heaped upon us by the unthinking and spiteful rabble — who 
in everything of this description see nothing but an object of 
scorn and sarcasm ; for these persons push their talents high, 
in never investigating a subject, or to see it in any other, but 
that distorted and obscure light which best suits them. 
Those ignorant and self- worshiping people, who take upon 
themselves to express the mind of the public, whose scourge 
they are, and who mislead the weak-minded, so as to destroy 
them with greater ease — these, we say, are particularly eager 
and active to assail everything with ridicule, which bears 
any reference to a future life, the solemn thought of which 
they hoot at with impious temerity, with insane levity en- 
deavoring to exclude all hopes of a hereafter, and to banish 
them from the hearts of others. No doubt you recognize the 
picture of those persons to whom we allude in this sketch: 
your country is full of them, as well as the rest of Europe, 
over which these apostates from humanity have spread them- 
selves, like the locust and the palmer- worm, and where they 
impudently assume the name of philosophers, to which they 
have no right whatever ; they base their false conclusions 
upon an imaginary foundation which they call Nature, pre- 
tending that nature is entirely independent of its Creator; 
they rely upon their own understandings, which in every 
respect are at variance with eternal wisdom ; and against 
this wisdom these modern giants, in their vain imagination, 
throw up mountains of sophisms, one more frightful than 



264 APPENDIX C. 

the other ; but the fate of such, has, and ever will be to sink 
back into that nothing, into which they strive to plunge the 
soul and everything which connects it with the Supreme 
Being, Heaven and the World of Spirits. 

As we have the pleasure of speaking to true philosophers, 
such as you, worthy sirs, whose benevolent disposition we 
venerate, there is no need of offering any apology for the di- 
gression from our subject, into which our just indignation 
towards these wrong-headed sophists, has led us. We ar% 
persuaded that you lament with us, the evils which they in- 
flict upon the human race, while they furnish the edge of 
their self-supposed keenness of intellect, only for the purpose 
of overthrowing *he foundations of true religion, the blotting 
out of Divine Revelation, and the destruction of all real vir- 
tue, which is the bond of society, by which alone it can be 
kept together. 

The extracts annexed to this letter, translated from the La- 
tin, and the conclusions and remarks which we draw from 
them, will serve to elucidate what we have already briefly 
advanced ; and as in both of these parts of our letter, we go 
back to those first principles, to which the phenomena known 
in Magnetism and Somnambulism have led us, subjects 
which at the present time seem to rivet the attention of every 
reflecting person in Europe, we wish to say that the oppor- 
tunity was too favorable to let pass, to direct such persons to 
the excellent maxims which alone can afford guidance, in 
the investigation of the causes of any visible effects whatever. 
As there is an indissoluble connection between all existing 
things, as there is between all truths, it is and remains at all 
times impossible to find the truth perfectly pure and unadulter- 
ated, without mixture of error, exceiDt we take it from Divine 
Revelation, which is the only living and inexhaustible foun- 
tain of truth; and which is now unknown or misunderstood, 
as its waters so long have been troubled and soiled, but 
which offers, when purified and restored to its primitive 
clearness, to every one who drinks of it, a well of living wa- 
ter springing up into everlasting life. 

The high esteem in which we hold you, in consequence 
of your laudable and generous efforts in behalf of the welfare 
of your fellow-beings, forbids us to doubt, that, as Christian 
philosophers, you will concede, that the introduction which 
we have given to those subjects which are treated of in this 
little brochure, may be advantageously read by many, inas- 
much as it may awaken a desire further to investigate sev- 
eral topics of importance, which we have here merely touch- 
ed upon. We have, moreover, convincing proofs, that Mag- 
netism and Somnambulism, by their extensive and beneficial 



APPENDIX C. 265 

influence, if rightly understood and applied, are intimately 
connected with the advancement of divine truth ; that they 
strengthen and corroborate it by means of a speaking illustra- 
tion (illustratio loquens), a name by which they seem to be 
sufficiently identified by the author mentioned above. It 
must also be admitted, that if man, as is asserted by that 
writer, who was illumined by Divine truth, is originally cre- 
ated to be at the same time an inhabitant of earth and a citi- 
zen of heaven, Phil. iii. 20, (" For our conversation is in 
heaven," &c.) so as to have his outward senses of sight and 
hearing opened, and through them to hold communion with 
his fellow-men, and also to have his inward sight and hear- 
ing in exercise, in order to see and converse with angels and 
spirits ; if this be so, which we do not at all doubt, then Som- 
nambulism may become to the Magnetizer and those present, 
who will rightly improve it, an adumbration, though feeble, 
of the first immediate correspondence with the invisible 
world ; a state to which mankind may again aspire, when, 
the Lord's New Kingdom shall have found sufficient access 
to the hearts of mortals, that his Holy City may come down 
from heaven, and the tabernacle of God shall again " be with 
men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his peo- 
ple, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." 
We even venture to hope, that every attentive reader who, 
after divesting himself of all prejudice, so as to look steadily 
at nothing but the pure truth, established by experience, fol- 
lows the chain of ideas and argument here presented, and 
puts himself in a position to make the experiments therewith 
connected, shall be prepared to become convinced of the fol- 
lowing truths and effects of Magnetism, viz : 

1. That all that is physical in Animal Magnetism, is only 
instru mentally appertaining to it, and that its main element is 
of a moral or spiritual nature. 

2. That there are two modes of magnetising, one of which 
our sleep -talkers call the wonder -working, and the other the 
supernatural* The moral cause which constitutes the efficacy 
of the former, is the strong desire possessed by the magne- 
tizer to make an impression upon the patient, and the reli- 
ance which he places in his own powers ; the moral or spirit- 
ual cause of supernatural magnetism, is also the desire 
which the Magnetizer possesses of working upon the patient, 
and especially upon his inner man, which corresponds with 
the disease ; a desire which does not spring from the Magnet- 
izer's vanity or self-conceit, nor from any ultimate views of 
gaining fame or money ; nor does it proceed from any confi- 
dence in himself; but on the contrary, from a sincere and 

* See note A. 



266 APPENDIX C. 

humble wish to be useful, subjected entirely to the will of 
God. For this end he invokes the Divine blessing, if so be 
that the healing of the sick, whom he desires to benefit, shall 
be conformable to the Divine purpose, in which alone he 
places all his confidence ; the aim and desires of the one ex- 
tend no farther than to what appertains to the natural and 
physical good ; that of the other not to the natural and phys- 
ical alone, but •especially to the spiritual good of the soul 
which alone can be truly and really beneficial to man. 
Such a magnetizer, convinced that all diseases, as well as all 
physical pain and ills to which mankind are exposed, are re- 
sults of moral evil, endeavors by his conversation, and yet 
more by his life and conduct, in a friendly manner to impress 
the patient with that important admonition which our Lord 
gave the man who had been diseased for a period of eight 
and thirty years, whom he restored, and to whom the Lord 
said : " Behold, thou art made whole ; sin no more, lest a 
worse thing come unto thee."* 

3. That the true theory of man teaches : that the human 
soul is a spiritual organ, endowed with free will, reason and 
power of action, which in proportion as it makes a good or 
perverse use of these capacities, renders itself apt and fitted 
to receive the influences of goodness and wisdom from the 
Lord, through the medium of angels and good spirits ; or the 
influences of evil and folly from hell, through the medium of 
devils and malignant spirits. All diseases, even those caused 
by accident, as well as the accident which have given occa- 
sion to the disease, are consequent upon the influences from 
hell, to which man by his unbridled passions and desires lays 
himself open. It is vainly objected against this, that there are 
sick persons, who to the eye of the world appear almost like 
saints, and seem to have kept themselves aloof from fleshly 
lusts which war against the soul (1 Pet. ii. 11). We may be 
fully persuaded, that these persons, if they sincerely examine 
themselves before God, will find abundant cause to complain 
in the words of Paul : " The law is spiritual ; but I am carnal, 
sold under sin ; so that when I would do good, evil is present 
with me ; for I delight in the law of God after the inward 
man : but I see another law in my members, warring against 
the law of my mind" (Rom, vii. 14, 21, 22, 23). f But as sick- 
ness and diseases are not the sole evils which afflict man- 
kind, we may easily find, that a person in perfect health may 
be more under the dominion of evil desires, than many a sick 
person. It would be a gross mistake to make unpalatable 
and improper application of this general principle to each 
one individually, alike repugnant to the rules of good breed- 



* See note B. t See note C 



APPENDIX C. 267 

ing and decorum, as to that Christian love aud charity, which, 
far from being puffed up or vaunting itself at the misfortune 
of a fellow-being, hop eth all things for the best concerning 
him, and in the meantime, endureth all things, 1 Cor. xiii. 7, 
and seeks by every possible means to promote his welfare. 
4. That the act of magnetizing is chiefly a moral act, and 
that its physical part, is such merely as a handle or instru- 
ment. The operative cause is the magnetizer's strong desire to 
benefit his neighbor ; and the effect is that of removing or ex- 
pelling the influence of the disease, as our sleep -wakers ex- 
press it. In consequence of what they have told us, Mag- 
netism, as to its moral cause, has some resemblance, though 
faint, with the laying on of hands, which divine gift the Lord 
imparted to the members of his church on earth in the days 
of the Apostles, and the promise of which seems to be given 
not to the primitive Christians alone, but may belong to sub- 
sequent times also, should Providence consider it conducive 
to the furtherance of his holy designs ; this is the evident im- 
port contained in the divine promise, where the Lord says : 
" And these signs shall follow them that believe : in my name 
shall they cast out devils, &c. — they shall lay hands on the 
sick, and they shall recover" (Mark xvi. 17, 18). Here men- 
tion is made generally of those that believe, without any 
limitation as to the time it is to continue. Comp. James v. 
14, 15. That this gift has ceased ever since the councils be- 
gan, is alas ! but too true ; for from that time onward the 
Christian w T orld has perverted that pure religion which the 
Lord bequeathed to his church, by the spurious glosses and 
additions which they have appended to his doctrine of the 
Holy Trinity, of the salvation of man, and other fundamental 
articles of belief; — to these errors have been of course super- 
added the declension of morals ; and it is nothing but these 
errors and vices which have so remarkably adulterated Chris- 
tianity, and caused it to swerve from that purity of heart 
and understanding, which ought to characterize the genuine 
worshipers of the Lord* (2 Tim. iv. 3). But we do not find it 
in any wise militating against the Lord's goodness and wis- 
dom, that when, of his great mercy, he shall again visit and 
edify his new church, he may, with purity of life and doc- 
trine, also restore those his precious gifts which He bestowed 
upon his first disciples. f It' is certain, that ever since the 
memorable period of 1757, not a year has passed, that atten- 
tive enlightened observers have not been aware of the pro- 
gress which the revolution in habits of thought and action, 
which is now going on in our planet, is constantly making. 
Just as the rising sun dispels the mist and vapors of the earth 

* See note D. t See note E. 



268 APPENDIX C 

before him, so the approach of the Lord's new kingdom 
seems, in like manner, to have stimulated the powers of hell, 
to oppose its spread with all their might, as says the Prophet : 
" Wo to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea ! for the 
devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because 
he hath but a short time" (Rev. xii. 12.) But if that madness, 
which wickedness and error entail upon their votaries, has 
been more general and apparent, even so have Goodness and 
Truth also, in their turn, made greater and more rapid ad- 
vancement since that period, through the influence from on 
high which they have been permitted to exercise upon those 
who with sincere hearts dedicate themselves to virtue and 
wisdom. The transition which we find that the natural world 
is undergoing, and which is palpably increased by the influ- 
ence of the spiritual world upon this, renders it probable, as our 
sleep -walkers have declared; that supernatural gifts and pow- 
ers will be bestowed upon such, ivho abstain from all known and de- 
liberate sinning, and in their hearts sincerely and humbly desire and 
pray, that the Lord's will may be done in everything, and theirs 
only in as far as it shall be perfetcly conformable to His. In the 
expectation, thereof, of seehig these hopes, so fraught with 
blessings to the human race, confirmed, there certainly can 
be nothing wrong, to consider some results of Magnetism 
and Somnambulism, which have already manifested them- 
selves, as being the harbingers of those blessings which the 
Lord in his great mercy may have in store for his obedient 
and humble children, who are practically virtuous and zeal- 
ous for the truth. 

5. That the state of the Somnambulist, during the magnetic 
sleep, may be called ecstatic, in order by that epithet to indi- 
cate a suspension of the functions of the will and of the un- 
derstanding, in the exercise of which, man's ordinary being, 
or esse, consists. Such a state plainly demonstrates, that 
what is said or done through the sleeper's organs, is not the 
act of his soul, but of some other being, who has taken pos- 
session of his organs, and operates through them. So long 
as the magnetized person exhibits painful paroxysms, such 
as convulsions, &c, it is a sign that the spirit of disease, 
which certainly cannot be a benevolent being, is still present ; 
but this spirit has no power to speak through the organs of 
the patient, unless he is fully possessed ; a dreadful condi- 
tion, of which we have seen some appalling examples, of 
which statements have been prepared, to the truthfulness of 
which there are many credible witnesses ; this condition is 
to a certain degree the same with that of those who are de- 
prived of their reason. So soon as the magnetized person 
begins to talk in his sleep, it is a sure sign, that a spiritual be- 
ing and friendly to the person (as being his guardian-angel 



APPENDIX C. 269 

or good genius, and possessing the same measure of goodness 
and wisdom with the patient) has succeeded if not entirely 
to remove the disease or rather the spirit of disease, has at 
least in so far rebuked its influence, that he, who is a benev- 
olent being, is able to speak and act through means of the 
patient's organs, and to give suitable advice to those present 
to promote his recovery; as also to impart information on all 
subjects which do not transcend his own knowledge. But 
there must be no other questions proposed, than such as may 
be practically useful and have a good object in view; and 
not such as have their origin in a vain curiosity, and still less 
such as are designed to ridicule and debase so serious a mat- 
ter. There are unfortunately persons of so malicious a dispo- 
sition, who carry the depravity of their hearts even thus far ; 
pretending with all possible boldness and assurance to assert, 
that Magnetism and Somnambulism, are nothing but hum- 
bug and imposition, devised by the patients themselves, who 
assume this guise of sleep -talkers only for the purpose of de- 
ceiving the spectators. Such an imputation proves, that 
these self-styled philosophers possess as little of sound under- 
standing as of benevolent virtue ; that they are incapable of 
discerning truth from falsehood, or to investigate a matter 
justly and without prejudice, while they always bring for- 
ward the possibilities of their own perverted imagination, in- 
stead of actual realities, of which every reasonable and can- 
did person may be convinced through his natural senses, 
which furnish him with incontrovertible testimony, through 
the genuine deductions of his reasoning faculties, and finally 
through a constant and infallible experience. As the spirit of 
disease and its influences gradually relinquish their hold upon 
the patient, it often happens, that from day to day, good 
spirits of a higher nature and more extensive knowledge, at- 
tach themselves to the patient, which may be ascertained by 
inquiring every time for the name which the spirit has borne 
while on earth and in the flesh. By the extension or degree 
of knowledge just spoken of, we mean a higher and more 
perfect intimacy with the spiritual and sublime sciences, but 
not with those of a natural and earthly nature, for with them 
spirits of a lower grade are more conversant, as those sub- 
jects are more homogeneal to the natural disposition, which 
the higher spirits have laid aside, but those of lower grades 
have not. 

From this short sketch of the phenomena as connected 
with our principles, which have moved us to address you 
with this letter, and to subject its contents to the judgment 
of yourselves and the reflecting public, you will not fail to 
see, worthy sirs, that the development and proofs of the 



270 APPENDIX C. 

whole are connected with the many distinct topics which we 
have been obliged to touch upon in the preceding compen- 
dious synopsis and subsequent extracts. We venture, how- 
ever, to hope that neither you, worthy sirs, nor any other in- 
telligent reader, will find anything superfluous, when that 
compend is considered from the stand-point of general utili- 
ty, but rather a stimulus and encouragement to seek for far- 
ther information, and to push experiments to a greater ex- 
tent, which is what we especially aim at. 

How desirable it is that those who, from inclination and 
with earnestness, apply themselves to the study of Magnet- 
ism and Somnambulism, would suffer themselves to be en- 
couraged from this, more and more to lift up their hearts and 
their understandings to Him " who alone doeth great wonders, 
for his mercy endureth for ever" (Ps. cxxxvi. 4). What an 
infinity of sublime knowledge, what depths of useful and en- 
lightening truths are held out to those in that new Divine re- 
velation which the Lord of his boundless mercy has been 
pleased in these our days to add to that proclamation which 
he has already given us from his goodness and wisdom, as 
contained in the Holy Bible ! But the beneficial and saving 
power of both these fountains of Divine truth, is misunder- 
stood by those who thence seek for truth, without being ani- 
mated by the heavenly desire to put in practice that which 
they learn, and to carry out in the life all that is good and 
profitable. Yes, for without this all endeavors to discover 
the secrets of wisdom are nugatory, and on the contrary in- 
jurious, and will draw down misery and condemnation upon 
those who abuse them. It is all of no avail " to speak 'with 
the tongues of man and angels, or have the gift of prophecy, 
and to understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have 
all faith, so as to remove mountains," (1 Cor. xiii. 1,) except 
a man's life exhibits a constant practice of brotherly love. 
As the Greenlander during six months of the year does not 
see the sun above his horizon, but is surrounded by his eter- 
nal ice, illumined only by the feeble light dispensed by the 
moon and the northern lights, just so unhappy is his condi- 
tion when compared with the happy and active inhabitants 
under a more temperate and agreeable zone, as the state of 
him who is covetous of knowledge but devoid of virtue, de- 
ceived by the vain distinction of being seen and gazed at, and 
the object of his own misguided self-love, when compared 
with the intelligent and moral man who exerts himself for 
the welfare of his race, wisely and virtuously, carrying within 
the light of eternal wisdom, and the vivifying heat of the 
sun of heavenly love, and by these guided and cheered on 
his way. He cannot be deceived as to the correctness of his 



APPENDIX C. 271 

steps, which all tend to the same goal, which is, to glorify his 
Maker and to benefit society. As he progresses on this laud- 
able path, all difficulties disappear, even those which to him 
seemed insurmountable ; he discovers new opportunities for 
doing good, and finds fresh means of accomplishing it. The 
steadily increasing desire of enlarging his sphere of useful- 
ness, and the heavenly satisfaction which accompanies the 
practice of virtue and benevolence, are the true and substan- 
tial rewards which are earned by an honest man, a good 
citizen, and a genuine Christian. It is this ever- active love 
and solicitude for the well-being of the human family — this 
only true virtue, which the divine and beneficent doctrines of 
Christianity so eminently uphold and inculcate, when they 
teach that love to God and man never faileth, but that all 
other qualities and gifts shall come to nought (1 Cor. xiii. 8). 
For it is the appropriate province and element of the soul of 
man to practise this. Happy, therefore, is that man who, 
during his pilgrimage through this life, in which he is tried 
and trained up for a better state of existence hereafter, endea- 
vors to improve every moment which Divine Providence al- 
lots him, to the active exercise of this virtue, of which it is 
said, " He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in 
him" (1 John iv. 16) ; and thus he enjoys a real blessedness, 
and his heaven begins already on earth. 

That divine revelation which the Lord of his infinite mercy 
has vouchsafed to His new church, aims principally to kindle 
this virtue in the breast of every mortal. It is a revelation 
which, by the most persuasive arguments, calls back the 
Christian to that paramount commandment of love (John xv. 12, 
17 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 13), the obedience and practice of which are 
his true and distinguishing mark (John xv. 12, 13). The ap- 
plication of this beneficent doctrine to the social duties, which 
is the main point in the new revelation from heaven, demon- 
strates how useful it would be in every state and every gov- 
ernment ; it urges, as its cardinal principle, that no one can be 
happy in the eternal state, only in as far as he has been a 
good citizen and a faithful subject in this life. (See The New 
Heaven, No. 93.) A principle which is rendered so clear and 
conspicuous by this doctrine, that in the view of every atten- 
tive and unbiassed reader, it completely throws to the ground 
those pernicious errors, those superstitious schemes, which 
the passions, ignorance and unbelief of men have sought to 
introduce in preference to the social virtues ; the only path 
which conducts to happiness in this life and in that which is 
to come. 

We beg to express our desire, worthy sirs, that you, as well 
as the Societies or individuals to whose knowledge this let- 



272 APPENDIX C. 

ter may come, and who take an interest therein, or are en- 
gaged in those subjects of which it treats, would do us the 
kindness to send us such of their published works, which are 
herewith connected, and at the same time have the goodness 
to inform us at which bookseller's or commercial house we 
are to forward the payment therefor. We would also, with 
great pleasure, accept written comments on this letter, and 
the topics which are therein presented. 

Before concluding this letter, may we be permitted to an- 
nex an announcement intended, not for yourselves alone, but 
for every one under whose eye this short epistle may fall, 
and which it was intended from the beginning to make gene- 
rally known, viz. that we have undertaken to publish A 
new and corrected edition of all the books of the new heavenly reve- 
lation to the Lord's new Church, embracing, 1. A reprint of the- 
original Latin works, those already printed in England and Hol- 
land as well as the not yet printed manuscripts. 2. French and 
Swedish translations of these works ; and 3. A reprint of Sebas- 
tian Schmidts Latin version of the canonical books of the Sacred 
Scriptures, with Emanuel Swedenborgs corrections and amendments* 
according to the Hebrew and Greek original ground text This 
edition will be issued with all that care and attention which 
the great importance of the subject demands, and in a conve- 
nient quarto or octavo form, printed with clear type and on 
good paper. The price will be as low as the outlay attend- 
ing so great an undertaking will admit, and will be regulated 
according to the larger or smaller number of copies which 
shall be printed ; and in order that it may be known by what 
to be guided in this matter, we beg that all friends of the 
truth, who wish such an undertaking to be carried into effect, 
would please to notify us how many copies of these several 
works may be sold by them. 

We remain, with friendship and esteem, 
Worthy sirs, 

" Your humble servants, 
The Exegetical and Philanthropic Society. 

Stockholm, June 19, 1787. 



Notes to the above Letter. 

A. That men, whose lives and principles otherwise are 
highly vicious and culpable, may perform miracles, is attest- 
ed by the Lord himself (Matt. vii. 22, 23). Those who have 
studied so deeply in the arts of Magic and Thaumaturgy, should 
seriously reflect upon this declaration of the Lord : their eter- 
nal happiness depends upon it ; and no one can with impu- 



APPENDIX C. 273 

nity enter these devious paths, leading away from the only 
true one whiah leadeth unto life (Johnxiv. 6). 

It is evident that by supernatural is meant whatever is be- 
yond the natural, sensual and corporeal, and signifies, there- 
fore the spiritual and heavenly. In this sense it is said in the 
Sacred Scriptures, " that which is born of the flesh, is flesh, 
and that which is born of the spirit, is spirit," (John hi. 6) ; 
and " the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know 
them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14). 
"It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing ; 
the words which the Lord speaketh unto us, they are spirit 
and life " (John vi. 63). It is characteristic of all the gifts of 
the Spirit, that they tend to general benefit and improve- 
ment (1 Cor. xii. 7 and sequ.) ; but such is by no means the 
case with love of self and the love of the world. Those who 
possess only the wonder-working power, are impelled by 
these affections (Matt. vii. 22, 23) ; and consequently possess 
the wonder-working power of Magnetism only, unaccom- 
panied by the supernatural, that is, the spiritual and hea- 
venly power and influence. 

We may remark here, in passing, that the frequent relap- 
ses to which all who have been considered as cured by 
means of the wonder-working magnetism, are exposed, 
spring from lack of virtue and wisdom in those egoistic Mag- 
netisers, who in their efforts aim only at effect, that is, at the 
diseases themselves, but overlook the most important effect, 
which aims at the causes, or the patient's moral disposition 
and character ; which causes, as long as they exist, cannot 
but produce the same effects, or repeated relapses. On the 
other hand, we have cases of cure in the most inveterate dis- 
eases, such as gout, rheumatism, lameness, deafness, &c. by 
means of the other species of magnetism which, as it were, 
introduces between the magnetiser and the magnetised a 
sphere of communication, of action and reaction, and of con- 
fidence and reliance upon the Lord who healeih (Exod. xv. 27) ; 
and of genuine zeal to obey all His holy commandments, 
which is the only legitimate evidence that man can offer in 
proof of his love for this his greatest benefactor, whose assist- 
ance he invokes and trusts to (John xiv. 21). In this man- 
ner is brought to pass what the Sacred Scriptures declare, 
namely, that " the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the 
Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have committed sins, they 
shall be forgiven him" (James v. 15). When the cause of 
the disease, or the dominion of sin in the patient's heart, has 
ceased to exist, then the effect, which was the disease itself, 
also ceases, never to return. 



274 APPENDIX C. 

B. That diseases generally are caused by evil spirits, cor- 
responds with the declaration of the Sacred Scriptures, as in 
Acts xix. 11,12 : — " And God wrought special miracles by the 
hand of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the 
sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from 
them, and the evil spirits went out of them." It is here 
spoken of diseases, but not of the being possessed by unclean 
spirits, which has been added by some later translators of 
the Bible, but is not found in the original Greek. Between 
common diseases and possessions there is, however, a fun- 
damental distinction; in the former, the person is only influ- 
enced to a certain degree by the evil spirits, but in the latter, 
the same as in madness and insanity, which always is a more 
or less complete possession, he is altogether under the do- 
minion of Satan and devils. These spirits of disease are also 
spoken of in the Sacred Scriptures (vpsvpa 'acrOwtias, spiritus in- 
nrmitatis). We are told in Luke xiii. 11, that " there was a 
woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and 
was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself." 
In the Greek there is nothing in this passage which indicates 
that this woman was possessed, but only afflicted with a kind 
of paralytic disease ; such was also the case with Simon Pe- 
ter's mother-in-law, who was not at all possessed (Luke iv. 
38, 39) ; but is spoken of as suffering from a great fever, and 
it is said the Lord rebuked the fever, and it left her ; which 
expression sufficiently illustrates that the disease had its ori- 
gin from a spirit which the Lord rebuked and cast out. 

C. Every man who lives in this world receives more or less 
good and bad influences ; this life is only a preparatory state, 
in which man has full liberty to choose to which kind of in- 
fluence he will surrender himself, either to that of heaven 
or to that from hell ; which always conforms to the man's 
habits, the passions which govern him, that desire which he 
possesses to find the truth, and to carry it into practice, the use 
which he makes of his physical and mental powers, and the 
moral and natural advantages of birth, fortune, &c. with 
which Providence has endowed him. 

D. The natural world is the world of effects or of phenomena, 
in their lowest sphere, or lowest degree of consolidation in a 
natural form ; these effects have their cause or origin in the 
spiritual world, even as their final object is derived from the 
celestial world, the soul of which is the Lord Eternal, God- 
man (Deus Homo), who thus orders and ordains all ulti- 
mate results, causes and effects by his Divine Providence, as 
the Lord himself testifies, saying, " Who hath wrought and 
done it, calling the generations from the beginning ? I, the 
Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he" (Isaiah xli. 4). 



APPENDIX C. 275 

As the three properties of man, viz. 1. The will, which refers 
to the end or object in view ; 2. The understandings which 
corresponds to the causes, or means employed ; and, 3. Action, 
which relates to the effects, and constitute the being, whose in- 
strument is the body. So also the Lord is man, spiritual in his 
essence, and the highest and fullest prototype of our weak 
and finite humanity, which is created in his image and like- 
ness (Gen. ii. 7). The will of God is liis goodness ; his under- 
standing is his wisdom j and his action is his omnipotence, or that 
emanation from His divine nature which is called the Spirit of 
the Lord, or the Holy Ghost. In this manner the Lord is God 
and man, the first ; but he did, moreover, in the fulness of 
time, become a natural, real man ,• and is thus made the last, 
in order that by his natural humanity, after having been sanc- 
tified and made divine, through temptations allowed to assail 
it from the powers of darkness, which he uniformly resisted , 
overcome, and took captive, he might for ever keep hell under 
his feet without destroying it, which would have taken place 
if he approached it in his Divine nature, and without shroud- 
ing or moderating his consuming fire (Deut. iv. 24; Heb. xii. 
29), by veiling it in natural humanity. It is by means of these 
victories over hell, and all its temptations and onsets — of 
which the sufferings on the cross were the last — that the Lord, 
God and man, in the fulness of time, has become the Saviour 
and Redeemer, not only upon earth to mankind, but also in the 
angelic Heaven, and in the world of spirits, which are insepara- 
bly connected with humanity, which is their origin and foun- 
dation, and through whom are exhibited all effects of ends 
and causes, which there concentrate and settle. Without 
this salvation, mankind would have been swallowed up and 
conquered by hell, which, at the time of our Lord's taking hu- 
man nature to himself, already had appeared upon earth — 
had overspread it and prevailed over it ; which is proved by 
secular as well as Church history, in the accounts they have 
bequeathed us of the worship of devils among the heathen ; of 
oracles, of possessions by evil spirits, and of the various magical 
arts which then were quite common; facts which more mo- 
dern Savans have classed among nursery-tales ; but to which 
there is always found a substratum of truth, notwithstanding 
all the additions with which they may be interlarded. 

It is remarkable that the Lord, in the prophecy from Isaiah 
quoted above, says, " I am with, or among, the last;" that is to 
say, that by His divine influence he is here below with the 
children of men, who are the last link of that chain composed 
ol those who are created in God's image, and to be His dwell- 
ing-place : for when this prophecy was made, the Lord had 
not yet assumed natural humanity, or the likeness of human 



276 APPENDIX C. 

flesh ; but after " the mystery of godliness," had become per- 
fected, and God made manifest in the fleshy he says, "lam the 
first and the last" (Rev. i. 11) ; that is to say, that He is God- 
man as to His spiritual nature, from all eternity, and made 
manifest in time in His natural humanity, which has been glo- 
rified and rendered divine, and with which His divinity had 
enveloped itself. 

E. The Lord's kingdom is properly a kingdom of ends or 
utility. For this object the world was created, that utility (or 
beneficent results) which the Lord sends from heaven, 
through the world of spirits, to the natural world, is first pro 
muigated and assumes shape in the angelic heaven, then 
passes into the world of spirits, and lastly into the natural 
world, with such materials by which it can render itself active 
in all its various degrees, and produce various consecutive 
effects y which finally become fixed here below, which is the 
last limit of creation. Every use, or useful thing, therefore, after 
having emanated from the Creator, and before it reaches our 
planet, has passed first through heaven or the angelic world, 
there to produce effects in accordance with the condition of 
the angels ; in like manner it passes through the world of 
spirits to operate there in a similar way; and finally, it has 
descended into our natural world, where it establishes and 
carries out its infinite effects, adapted to the state of man, and 
of all other created beings. Hence it is evident that utility, 
which is the Creator's end and object, constitutes a necessary 
and indestructible concatenation of correspondences, influ- 
ence, and graduated analogy or affinity, between the angelic 
heaven, the spiritual and the natural worlds, as it succes- 
sively passes through these three different stages. In the 
natural world, all objects in the animal, vegetable and mineral 
kingdoms, which have come into existence in their proper 
order, have their forms of utility, all of which utilities or uses 
have reference principally to man, whose frame is the first 
and most eminent of all, as being created in God's own im- 
age ; this he retains, and it becomes perfected by his abiding 
in God's order or arrangement, which he fulfils when he con- 
secrates himself to God and his neighbor in love, which he 
does by discharging every duty which he owes to society 
and to his calling ; and when his aims, thoughts, and actions 
have reference to utility, as well in its form as in its corres- 
pondence with the two upper "worlds. When man follows 
this, he enters into communion with the Lord ; and as to his 
inward nature, becomes the point of union where all the util- 
ities meet, and through which he fulfils the object of his ex- 
istence here on earth. 

In order that this communion may take place, all the can- 



APPENDIX C. 277 

onical books of God's holy word have been composed by 
correspondences, as well in their connection as in every se- 
parate part. In proportion as man receives the doctrine of 
correspondences , he will understand not only the literal sense 
of God's word, which is the outward body, and the last out- 
ward garment, but what is infinitely more, he understands 
the hidden or spiritual sense of the Holy Word, which is, as it 
were, the soul, in which is the life, which proceeds from the 
Lord, and which, in its inmost meaning, is Himself. For thus 
it is written : " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God " (John i. 1). It is 
the true and living Word of God which endureth for ever, through 
the power and indwelling of which, and the life conforming 
thereunto, that man is regenerated 1 Pet. i. 23, and not through 
the letter, which, alone and separated from the spirit, is as the 
body without the soul, which only Jcilleth, while the spirit giv- 
eth life, as is said in 2 Cor. iii. 6. The literal sense and mean- 
ing of the word is penned in accordance with everything that 
is found to exist in the natural world, and its corresponding 
spiritual meaning is composed of what exists in heaven. It 
is the unfolding of this spiritual sense and meaning, presented 
with a degree of clearness and force of excellence hitherto 
unknown, which the Lord has been pleased in our day to 
cause to descend unto the earth through His gracious revela- 
tion to His new church. A development which is foretold in 
Holy Writ, by the name of the Lord's second coming, " When 
he shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all 
them that believe " (2 Thess. i. 1G). 

That this second advent of the Lord shall be attended with 
supernatural gifts, bestowed upon those who worship Him in 
spirit and in truth, is an expectation on which they have good 
grounds to depend, according to the Divine promises which 
the Lord has been pleased to give unto them : " If ye abide in 
me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it 
shall be done unto you" (John xv. 7). "Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, 
and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Fa- 
ther" (Johnxiv. 12). 

The spiritual gifts which the Lord of His grace bestows 
upon his true worshipers, are distinguished, 1. By calling on 
the Lord our Saviour. 2. By an implicit trust and confidence 
in His holy Providence, and 3. By employing these gifts for 
the general good (1 Cor. xii. 3, 7), characteristics differing 
very materially from, 1 . The overweening confidence which 
the egoistical Thaumaturg, addicted to magical arts, reposes 
in himself. 2. His ambitious and covetous designs, and 3. 
His invocation of other beings than the Lord himself, be they 

13 



■■ 



278 APPENDIX C, 

Angels, Spirits, or Saints, which is expressly forbidden as an 
abominable idolatry (Deut vi. 13, et sequ). " Thou shalt fear 
the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye 
shall not go after other gods," &c. that is to say after neither Angels, 
Spirits, or Saints. When man directs his adoration and his 
prayers to the Lord himself, he often sends to him angels 
and good spirits, bnt let him never in any manner offer wor- 
ship to them. " See, that thou do it not," said the angel to 
John, "for lam thy fellow -servant, and of thy brethren the Prophets, 
and of them which keep the sayings of this Book : worship God" 
The worship of the Virgin Mary and of the Saints, introduced 
by the ecclesiastical councils, is one of the most scandalous 
perversions of Christianity, which has contributed in no small 
measure to the withdrawal of those spiritual gifts, which the 
Lord has given to his church and congregation ; in the place 
of which magical arts and incantations are used, which in all 
ages have been connected with such idolatrous worship, ad- 
dressed to angels, deceased men and women, spirits and 
devils. We cannot sufficiently urge and entreat the friends 
of man and of religion, in civil as well as ecclesiastical gov- 
ernments, to direct their earnest and prompt attention to this 
all-important subject, the consequences of which will be the 
condemnation of so many human beings in this and in the 
future life (2. Thess. ii. 4, 8-12.) May the learned, read and 
ponder upon the chapter on Magic, in " the Gottliche und 
wahre methaphysica (divine and true metaphysics)," written 
by Pordage, an Englishman. 

"Learn how to exercise your will powerfully," says Mesmer. 
"Believe and will," says the author of" Les Memoires de Busan- 
cy" (Marquis dePuysegur). These words express everything. 
Vide, " Essai sur la theorie du Somnambulisme Magnetique, par 
Mons. Montravel," p. 45. 

" Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift 
of God, which is in thee ; for God hath not given us the spirit of 
fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. i. 6, 
7*). The spirit of love, is the divine influence from the Lord on 
the will of man. The spirit of a sound mind, is the divine in- 
fluence on man's understanding, and the spirit of power is the 
divine influence applied to man's actions; that is to say: The 
influence of the Triune God, the Lord Jesus Christ, of his 
Goodness, Wisdom, and almighty Power upon the three car- 
dinal properties of the soul of man. A real Christian can do 
all things through Christ, who strengthened him (Phil. iv. 13). 

" My brethren, count it all joy, when ye fall into divers 

* In the Swedish version it is called the spirit of prudence, of 
caution. 



APPENDIX C. 279 

temptations. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith 
worketh patience ; but let patience have her perfect work, 
that ye may be perfect and entire, 'wanting nothing. If any 
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men 
liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him. But 
let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth 
is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. 
For let not that man think, that he shall receive anything of 
the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways " 
(James i. 2-8), That is to say, " No man can serve two mas- 
ters, for either he will hate the one and love the other ; or 
else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye can- 
not serve God and mammon" (Matt. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13), or 
as is the same, those gifts and capacities, which man ascribes 
to himself, and for which he does not give God the glory, 
from whom cometh down every good and every perfect gift (James 
i. 17). "The Pharisees" (or those self- conceited and ignorant 
sophists, who recognized no other motive to all human ac- 
tion, but self-love), " who were covetous, heard all these 
things, and they derided him. And he said unto them : Ye 
are they who justify themselves before men ; but God know- 
eth your hearts ; for that which is highly esteemed among 
men, is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke xvi. 14, 15). 

We do not doubt that Christian philosophers, such as we 
have reason to believe the Marquis de Puysegur, Monsieur 
Montravel, and all benevolent, disinterested and enlightened 
magnetizers who resemble them, to be — acknowledge, vener- 
ate, and follow with humble zeal, the only infallible and per- 
manent principles, contained in the inspired passages just 
quoted. To teach and instruct mankind that self-love is and 
ought to be the only motive of action, from which follows 
that they should believe that the Creator had intended men 
to be incarnate devils, would entail the most appalling and 
destructive consequences, not only upon Christianity, but 
upon the whole social system. Compare what is said at the 
end in the extracts translated from the Latin. 

" Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, [and on 
account of other similar supernatural gifts,] but rather rejoice 
because your names are written in heaven " (Luke x. 20). 
1 Peter i. 2, &c. : — " Elect, according to the foreknowledge 
of God the Father" (i. e. destined to enjoy in this life, and in 
that which is to come, that happiness which virtue confers, 
according to the providence of Divine goodness), " through 
the sanctification of the Spirit " (through the emanation from 
the Divine Nature), " unto obedience and sprinkling of the 
blood of Jesus Christ " (to yield obedience to the Lord's di- 
vine humanity, and to receive the life-giving and actual in- 



280 APPENDIX C. 

corporation with his truth, operating through deeds). " Grace 
unto you and peace, be multiplied " (may the Divine influ- 
ence, which works righteousness in your hearts, and, as its 
consequence, gives you a good and quiet conscience, be mul- 
tiplied unto you). 

Here we have a compend of the Christian religion in a few 
lines. How simple, how intelligible, benevolent and condu- 
cive to the happiness of society ! Let us listen to the rest 
of Peter's exhortation, ver. 17, "And if ye call on the Fa- 
ther, who, without respect to persons, judgeth according to 
every man's work, [but not according to every man's faith 
alone,] pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Seeing 
ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the 
Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love 
one another with a pure heart fervently." (Chap. ii. 19). 
" For this is thank- worthy [or a grace, as in the Swedish], if 
a man for conscience sake toward God, endure suffering 
wrongfully," — " for even hereunto were ye called " (as it is 
through much tribulation that we must enter the kingdom of 
God. Acts xiv. 22), " because Christ also suffered for us, leav- 
ing us an example, that ye should follow his steps : who 
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth : who, when 
he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he 
threatened not, but committed himself to Him that judgeth 
righteously : who his own self bore our sins in his own body 
on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto right- 
eousness " (vers. 19, 21-24). This is the invariable aim and 
object of all the injunctions of our holy religion ; its myste- 
ries, doctrines and commandments all centre into this, that 
we should love and practise righteousness — to live nothing but 
righteousness, which consists in loving our neighbor as our- 
selves, and thus, of course, comprises brotherly love toward 
each other. (Chap. iii. 12 et sequ.) "For the eyes of the 
Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their 
prayers : but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 
And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that 
which is good ? But, and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, 
happy are ye ! For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, 
the just for the unjust, that he might bring (offer) us to God." 
In commemoration of which divine and beneficent act the 
holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper was instituted by the Lord 
our Saviour, for his true worshipers, for the worthily par- 
taking of which man does properly prepare himself, when 
with real deep-felt abhorrence he looks upon all unrighteous- 
ness, and as truly loves only righteousness. (Chap. iy. 2 
et sequ.) " That he no longer should live the rest of his time 
in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God ;" and 



APPENDIX D. 281 

** As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the 
same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace 
of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of 
God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability 
which God giveth : that God in all things may be glorified, 
through Jesus Christ ; to whom be praise and dominion for 
ever and ever." Amen, 



APPENDIX D. 

TRANCE OF THE REV. WILLIAM TENNENT. 

The following case of trance, which is extremely well au- 
thenticated, occurred at New Bruns wick, N. J. about the middle 
of the last century. The memory of it is even now traditionally 
well preserved in the region of country where it took place, 
and it is but a few years since the writer of the letter intro- 
duced in the narrative went to join the spirit of his revered 
predecessor, the subject of this remarkable experience. The 
temporary translation of the inner- man into the spiritual world, 
and the vouchsafement of an extatic vision of the heavenly 
hosts, is far from being without precedent ; but the subse- 
quent loss of memory constitutes the grand peculiarity of Mr. 
Tennent's case. This, we think, is amply explained on the 
principle laid down by Swedenborg of the distinction of mem- 
ory into external and internal, and which we have brought 
to the solution of the present case on a preceding page (p. 97). 
The external memory is the repository of everything which, 
in Swedenborg's phraseology, comes under the head of scienti- 
jics, in which are included languages, arts, sciences, all of 
which become naturally dormant in the other life, while in 
the internal memory survive those things which, from inmost 
affection, have become inwrought into the central life of the 
spirit. For a full development of the nature and laws of 
memory, as respects their operation in the spiritual world, 

see A. C. 2469-2494. 

13* 



282 APPENDIX D. 

" After a regular course of study in theology, Mr. Tennent 
was preparing for his examination by the presbytery, as a 
candidate for the Gospel ministry. His intense application 
affected his health, and brought on a pain in his breast and 
a slight hectic. He soon became emaciated, and at length 
was like a living skeleton. His life was now threatened. 
He was attended by a physician, a young man who was at- 
tached to him by the strictest and warmest friendship. He 
grew worse and worse, till little hope of life was left. In 
this situation, his spirits failed him, and he began to entertain 
doubts of his final happiness. He was conversing one morn- 
ing with his brother, in Latin, on the state of his spul, when 
he fainted and died away. After the usual time, he was laid 
out on a board, according to the common practice of the 
country, and the neighborhood were invited to attend his fu- 
neral on the next day. In the evening his physician and 
friend returned from a ride into the country, and was afflicted 
beyond measure at the news of his death. He could not be 
persuaded that it was certain; and on being told that one of 
the persons who had assisted in laying out the body, thought 
he had observed a little tremor of the flesh under the arm, al- 
though the body was cold and stiff, he endeavored to ascer- 
tain the fact. He first put his own hand into warm water, 
to make it as sensible as possible, and then felt under the 
arm, and at the heart, and affirmed that he felt an unusual 
warmth, though no one else could. He had the body restored 
to a warm bed, and insisted that the people who had been 
invited to the funeral should be requested not to attend. To 
this the brother objected as absurd, the eyes being sunk, the 
lips discolored, and the whole body cold and stiff. However, 
the doctor finally prevailed, and all probable means were 
used to discover symptoms of returning life. But the third 
day arrived, and no hopes were entertained of success but 
by the doctor, who never left him night nor day. The people 
were again invited, and assembled to attend the funeral. The 
doctor still objected, an£ at last confined his request for delay 
to one hour, then to half an hour, and finally, to a quarter of 



APPENDIX D. 283 

an hour. He had discovered that the tongue was much swol- 
len, and threatened to crack. He was endeavoring to soften 
it by some emollient ointment, put upon it with a feather, 
when the brother came in, about the expiration of the last 
period, and, mistaking what the doctor was doing for an at- 
tempt to feed him, manifested some resentment, and in a 
spirited tone said, ' It is shameful to be feeding a lifeless 
corpse ;' and insisted, with earnestness, that the funeral 
should immediately proceed. 

" At this critical and important moment, the body, to the 
great alarm and astonishment of all present, opened its eyes, 
and gave a dreadful groan, and sunk again into apparent 
death. This put an end to all thoughts of burying him, and 
every effort was again employed, in hopes of bringing about 
a speedy resuscitation. In about an hour, the eyes again 
opened, a heavy groan proceeded from the body, and again 
all appearance of animation vanished. In an another hour, 
life seemed to return with more power, and a complete revi- 
val took place, to the great joy of the family and friends, 
and to the no small astonishment and conviction of very 
many who had been ridiculing the idea of restoring to life a 
dead body. 

" Mr. Tennent contined in so weak and low a state, for six 
weeks, that great doubts were entertained of his final recov- 
ery. However, after that period, he recovered much faster, 
but it was about twelve months before he was completely re- 
stored. After he was able to walk the room, and to take no- 
tice of what passed around him, on a Sunday afternoon, his 
sister, who had staid from church to attend him, was reading 
in the Bible, when he took notice of it, and asked her what 
she had in her hand. She answered that she was reading 
the Bible. He replied, e What is the Bible ? I know not 
what you mean.' This affected the sister so much that she 
burst into tears, and informed him that he was once well ac- 
quainted with it. On her reporting this to the brother, when 
he returned, Mr. Tennent was fouryl, upon examination, to 
be totally ignorant of every transaction of his life previous to 



284 APPENDIX D. 

his sickness. He could not read a single word, neither did 
he seem to have any idea of what it meant. As soon as he 
became capable of attention, he was taught to read and 
write, as children are usually taught, and afterwards began to 
learn the Latin language, under the tuition of his brother. 
One day, as he was reciting a lesson in Cornelius Nepos, he 
suddenly started, clapjDed his hand to his head, as if some- 
thing had hurt him, and made a pause. His brother asking 
him what was the matter, he said, that he felt a sudden shock 
in his head, and it now seemed to him as if he had read that 
book before. By degrees his recollection was restored, and 
he could speak the Latin as fluently as before his sickness. 
His memory so completely revived, that he gained a perfect 
knowledge of the past transactions of his life, as if no diffi- 
culty had previously occurred. This event, at the time, made 
a considerable noise, and afforded not only matter of serious 
contemplation to the devout Christian, especially when con- 
nected with what follows in this narration, but furnished a 
subject of deep investigation and learned inquiry to the real 
philosopher and curious anatomist. 

" The writer of these memoirs was greatly interested by 
these uncommon events ; and, on a favorable occasion, earn- 
estly pressed Mr. Tennent for a minute account of what his 
views and apprehensions were while he lay in this extraor- 
dinary state of suspended animation. He discovered great 
reluctance to enter into any explanation of his perceptions 
and feelings at this time ; but, being importunately urged to 
do it, he at length consented, and proceeded with a solemnity 
not to be described. 

" ' While I was conversing with my brother,' said he, ' on 
the state of my soul, and the fears I had entertained for my 
future welfare, I found myself, in an instant, in another state 
of existence, under the direction of a superior being, who or- 
dered me to follow him. I was accordingly wafted along, I 
know not how, till I beheld at a distance in ineffable glory, 
the impression of which on my mind it is impossible to 
communicate to mortal man. I immediately reflected on my 
happy change, and thought — Well, blessed be God ! I am safe 



APPENDIX D. 285 

at last, notwithstanding all my fears. I saw an innumerable 
host of happy beings, surrounding the inexpressible glory, in 
acts of adoration and joyous worship ; but I did not see any 
bodily shape or representation in the glorious appearance. 
I heard things unutterable. I heard their songs and hallelu- 
jahs of thanksgiving and praise, with unspeakable rapture. 
I felt joy unutterable and full of glory. I then applied to my 
conductor, and requested leave to join the happy throng; on 
which he tapped me on the shoulder, and said, " You must 
return to the earth." This seemed like a sword through my 
heart. In an instant I recollect to have seen my brother 
standing before me, disputing with the Doctor. The three 
days during which I had appeared lifeless, seemed to me not 
more than ten or twenty minutes. The idea of returning to 
this world of sorrow and trouble gave me such a shock that 
I fainted repeatedly.' He added, ' Such was the effect on my 
mind of what I had seen and heard, that if it be possible for 
a human being to live entirely above the world, and the 
things of it, for some time afterwards, I was that person. The 
ravishing sounds of the songs and hallelujahs that I heard, 
and the very words that were uttered, were not out of my 
ears, when awake, for at least three years. All the kingdoms 
of the earth were, in my sight, as nothing and vanity ; and 
so great were my ideas of heavenly glory, that nothing which 
did not in some measure relate to it, could command my se- 
rious attention.' 

"It is not surprising, that after so affecting an account, strong 
solicitude should have been felt for farther information as to 
the words, or, at least, the subjects of praise and adoration, 
which Mr. Tennent had heard. But when he was requested 
to communicate these, he gave a decided negative, adding, 
* You will know them, with many other particulars, hereafter, 
as you will find the whole among my papers;' alluding to his 
intention of leaving the writer hereof his executor, which 
precluded any farther solicitation. 

"The author has been particularly solicitous to obtain 
every confirmation of this extraordinary event in the life of 
Mr. Tennent. He accordingly wrote to every person he could 



286 APPENDIX D. 

think of, likely to have conversed with I\Ir. T. on the subject. 
He received several answers ; but the following letter from 
the worthy successor of Mr. Tennent, in the pastoral charge 
of his church, will answer for the author's purpose. 

"Monmouth, X. J. December 10, 1805. 
'•'Dear Sir — Agreeably to your request, I now send you, 
in writing, the remarkable ace omit which I some time since 
gave you verbally, respecting your good friead, my worthy 
predecessor, the late Kev. William Tennent, of this place. In 
a very free and feeling conversation on religion, and on the 
future rest and blessedness of the people of God (while tra- 
velling together from Monmouth to Princeton), I mentioned 
to Mr. Tennent that I should be highly gratified in hearing 
from his own mouth, an account of the trance which he was 
said to have been in, unless the relation would be disagree- 
able to himself. After a short silence he proceeded, saying, 
that he had been sick with a fever ; that the fever increased, 
and he by degrees sunk under it. After some time (as his 
friends informed him), he died, or appeared to die, in the 
same manner as persons usually do ; that in laying him out 
one happened to draw his hand under the left arm, and per- 
ceived a small tremor in the flesh ; that he was laid out, and 
was cold and stiff. The time for his funeral was appointed, 
and the people collected; but a young doctor, his particular 
friend, pleaded with great earnestness that he might not then 
be buried, as the tremor under the arm continued ; that his 
brother, Gilbert, became impatient with the young gentle- 
man, and said to him, *' What! a man not dead who is cold and 
stiff as a stake. n The importunate young friend, however, 
prevailed ; another day was appointed for the burial, and the 
people separated. During this interval, many means were 
made use of to discover, if possible, some symptoms of life; 
but none appeared, excepting the tremor. The doctor never 
left him for three nights and three days. The people again 
met to bury him, but could not, even then, obtain the 
consent of his friend, who pleaded for one hour more ; 
and when that was gone, he pleaded for half an hour, 



APPENDIX D. 287 

and then for a quarter of an hour ; when, just at the close 
of this period, on which hung his last hope, Mr. Ten- 
nent opened his eyes. They then pried into his mouth, 
which was stiff, so as to get a quill into it, through which 
some liquid was conveyed into the stomach, and he, by de- 
grees, recovered. 

" This account, as intimated before, Mr. Tennent said he 
had received from his friends. I said to him, ' Sir, you seem 
to be one, indeed, raised from the dead, and may tell us what 
it is to die, and what you were sensible of while in that 
state.' He replied in the following words : — ' As to dying, I 
found my fever increase, and I became weaker and weaker, 
until, all at once, 1 found myself in heaven, as I thought. I 
saw no shape as to the Deity, but glory all unutterable /' Here 
he paused, as though unable to find words to express his 
views, let his bridle fall, and lifting up his hands, proceeded!, 
1 1 can say, as St. Paul did, I heard and saw things all unut- 
terable ! I saw a great multitude before this glory, apparently 
in the height of bliss, singing most melodiously. I was trans- 
ported with my own situation, viewing all my troubles end- 
ed, and my rest and glory begun, and was about to join the 
great and happy multitude, when one came to me, looked 
me full in the face, laid his hand upon my shoulder, and said, 
" You must go back." These words went through me ; no- 
thing could have shocked me more ; I cried out, " Lord must 
I go back !" With this shock, I opened my eyes in this world. 
When I saw I was in the world, I fainted, then came to, and 
fainted for several times, as one probably would naturally 
have done in so weak a situation.' 

" Mr. Tennent farther informed me, that he had so entirely 
lost the recollection of his past life, and the benefit of his for- 
mer studies, that he could neither understand what was 
spoken to him, nor write, nor read his own name; that he 
had to begin all anew, and did not recollect that he had ever 
read before, until he had again learned his letters, and was 
able to pronounce the monosyllables, such as thee and thou; 
but that, as his strength returned, which was very slowly, 
his memory also returned. Yet, notwithstanding the extreme 



M 



288 APPENDIX D. 

feebleness of his situation, his recollection of what he saw 
and heard while in heaven, as he supposed, and the sense of 
divine things which he there obtained, continued all the time 
in their full strength, so that he was continually in something 
like an ecstasy of mind. * And,' said he, ' for three years the 
sense of divine things continued so great, and everything else 
appeared so completely vain when compared to heaven, that 
could I have had the world for stooping down for it, I believe 
I should not have thought of doing it.' 

" The pious and candid reader is left to his own reflections 
on this very extraordinary occurrence. The facts have been 
stated, and they are unquestionable. The writer will only 
ask, whether it be contrary to revealed truth, or to reason, to 
believe, that in every age of the world instances like that 
which is here recorded have occurred, to furnish living testi- 
mony of the reality of the invisible world, and of the infinite 
importance of eternal concerns ?" — Christian Library, p. 299. 



THE END. 






ifiriii 



MESMER AND SWEDENBORG; 



OR, 



THE RELATION 



OF THK 



DEVELOPMENTS OF MESMERISM 



TO THE 



DOCTRINES AND DISCLOSURES 



OF 



SWEDENBORG, 



" It certainly it agreeable to reason, that there are some light effluxions from spirit to 
spirit, when men are in presence one with another, as well as from body to body." 

—Bacon. 



BY GEORGE BUSH 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN ALLEN, 139 NASSAU STREET. 



1847. 






SWEDENBORG'S WORKS, 

SCIENTIPIC AND THEOLOGICAL. 

JOHN ALLEN has constantly on sale the voluminous 
writings of this remarkable man, which cover nearly the 
whole ground of htfman knowledge, both secular and sacred. 
His Theological works amount to upwards of thirty vols. 
8vo. ; the Scientific and Philosophical works, published and 
publishing, promise soon to rival, or rather to exceed, that 
number. Among these have recently been translated into 
English and are now for sale by Mr. A. — The Animal King- 
dom, 2 vols. 8vo. — The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, 2 vols. 
8vo. — The Principia, 2 vol* 8vo. 

In addition to these the " Swedenborg Association" of Lon- 
don has just announced as in the press or in preparation the 
following Treatises, the titles of which will serve to indicate 
the amazing extent of the author's researches and the cor- 
responding versatility of his powers. 1. Miscellaneous Obser- 
vations connected with the Physical Sciences, especially on Minerals, 
Fire, the Strata of Mountains, life. — 2. Critical and General Intro- 
duction to the Philosophy of the Infinite: treating on the Final 
Came of Creation, and of the Intercourse between the Soul and the 
Body. — 3. Two Treatises on the Brain, forming together 1900 
pages 4to. — 4. A Treatise on Generation. — 5. Two Treatises on the 
Ear and the sense of Hearing. — 6. Treatise on Common Salt, 4to. 
pp. 343.-7. New Method of finding the Longitude.— 8. New Me- 
chanical Process for constructing Docks and Dykess with a mode 
of testing the Powers of Vessels.-— 9. New Observations respecting 
Iron and Fire, with a new Construction of Stoves, &c. &c. 

Orders received as above. 

Subscriptions received for Prof. Bush's Swedenborg Library 
— Gi cte. per No., or $2 per volume. 

New- York, Nov. 20, 1846. 






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